When your company isn’t doing well, how can you be a good CEO? How do you get through the hard times without giving up? What is The Struggle?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his book The Hard Thing About Hard Things<\/a>, <\/em>Ben Horowitz talks about the hard parts of starting a business and being a CEO. He discuses The Struggle that almost every CEO will go through and gives advice on how to get through it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Keep reading for advice on how to be a good CEO<\/a> and get through The Struggle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n Most startup books talk about business strategy in the good times\u2014how to form a competitive advantage<\/a>, how to set big hairy audacious goals<\/a>. Ben Horowitz is more interested in sharing advice on how to deal with the bad times in his book The Hard Thing About Hard Things<\/em>. That’s critical if you want to know how to be a CEO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most people start their companies with boundless enthusiasm. The sky is open, the possibilities are endless, and success is inevitable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then reality hits. Your plans have not lived up to their promise. You don\u2019t have the traction you hoped for. Things seem to be unraveling. Your key first hires start leaving. Your customers start churning. It seems to point to inevitable failure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the Struggle. <\/strong>The Struggle is when the impending failure of your company swallows every thought and sensation in your waking life. The Struggle is when you question why your idiot self ever started a company. The Struggle is sleepless lonely nights when you feel you\u2019ve failed everyone who was dumb enough to believe in you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Every entrepreneur has gone through the Struggle, from Steve Jobs to Elon Musk. Greatness is born from the Struggle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Struggle is a make or break moment. If you are weak and you succumb to the Struggle, you will fail. If you are strong and you can get through the Struggle, you have a fighting chance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s how to cope with the Struggle and find a way out of it.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Being a CEO is unnatural. Humans didn\u2019t evolve in a way that makes running a thousand-person company a natural thing to do. For instance, humans evolved behaviors to get other people to like them; as CEO, you will have to make decisions that will make people dislike you (at least temporarily).<\/p>\n\n\n\n This also means people aren\u2019t born CEOs out of the womb. It is a learned skill. Even worse, it\u2019s a skill that you can only learn by actually doing it<\/strong>. So if you\u2019re a first-time CEO, you have no idea what you\u2019re doing, and you have no idea how well you should be doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The good news is, most CEOs have failed repeatedly, and many are currently failing. Horowitz says that if CEOs were graded on a test, the mean score would be 22 out of 100<\/strong>. Many CEOs indeed don\u2019t know what they\u2019re doing; even among those who do, things simply go wrong because building a business is complex, the market is competitive, and the future is unpredictable. Every company goes through existentially threatening moments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you don\u2019t know the mean score is 22, then you feel bad because you think you\u2019re the only one underperforming. But now that you know better, you can focus on improving your score.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite being in the struggle, you must never give up. The only certain way you\u2019ll fail is if you give up. When you see no good moves, you have to keep looking for a move.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\nHow to Handle the Bad Times<\/strong> as a CEO<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The CEO Struggle<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Realize Failing Is Normal<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
If You Want to Be a CEO, Don\u2019t Quit<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n