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.

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 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.