Just finished The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz last night.

One of the best nonfiction books I've read in a few years. Really inspiring as a founder.

I came in knowing almost nothing about Ben. What I learned about was a person who has some of the highest grit, agency and determination of anyone I've heard of.

For those who don't know, Ben is cofounder of A16Z, and fka Loudcloud/Opsware CEO, one of the first large cloud businesses, through the dotcom bubble up until their acquisition by HP in 2007.

So many lessons in there, but the biggest takeaways for me:

There are no fucking rules. Reality bends to those with the determination to do so. You do what you need to do, when you need to do it. And there's a time to turn this off. Wartime vs Peacetime.

And most importantly,

You must embrace the Struggle

I love reading leadership books by people who've been in the shit.

This one joins my other favorite, Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink. Its a privilege to be able to read the experiences of these people. Highly recommended reading for anyone.

I read the hard things after an unbanksy recommendation back in the day, it’s a good one!!