Ben Horowitz: Personal Analysis

442 Words1 Page

The most valuable lesson I have learned so far from Ben Horowitz’s book is that there is always a solution. Really, I am amazed by how much resilience Ben had when his personal and professional life were shitty. Twenty-five years ago, my father left 3M to create his own company, he left a really good position in a global company to follow his dream and also because he couldn’t stand having a boss breathing over his neck anymore. I was less than one-year-old and he “gambled” everything over an idea. That is one of the thing I admire the most about him. My dad’s story and Ben’s book made me realize even more that to be successful the hardest part is to actually start. Having a lot of ambition but never taking to risk to fulfill it or loose some price is the worst that can happened to me. …show more content…

On the other hand, I believe, or at least I want to believe that it is possible to have an amazing family life and running a successful company. I did not really see that in the book because the author focuses mostly on what he was doing for his company and not his personal life. Unfortunately, I also have seen my father having difficulties adjusting to a family life while he was fighting for the future of his company. I know that conciliating both is a challenging task. I would love to apply the lessons I am learning from the book and the class to every domain that interest me. What feels contradictory to me is that the book shows that to be a successful entrepreneur, one need to think twice and coldly calculate all his/her interaction which is the opposite of what I want to do with my family and the people around me. Going even further, it proves how hard it must to work with friends and/or family

Show More
Related

  • The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive

    1535 Words  | 4 Pages

    As I earlier mentioned, outside of a family business or partnership of long-time friends, the concepts in the book are a bit idealistic, however, I feel that it is a positive aspect of the book because it allows readers to have something to always be striving toward and attempting to reach.

    Read More

  • Influencing and Leadership: Matthew E. Menner

    841 Words  | 2 Pages

    Today, in the business world, there are many influential and successful men and women; however, one particular man has influenced my life, as a role model and inspiration. Matthew Menner is the senior vice president of strategy for Transplace, Inc. He works for a leading third-party logistics and technology solutions provider, focusing on transportation management business processes outsourcing. Throughout his life he has held many jobs, but they all have one thing in common: each job he has received is from his network. Though his jobs are respectable, it is not just those that have inspired me; it is how he got there and the process of becoming a successful business leader that motivate me. Matthew Menner graduated from Green Mountain College, where he received his associates degree in liberal arts. From there, he followed his dream of working on the railroad and went to college at Syracuse University and completed a bachelor’s degree in business administration-marketing management, and masters in transportation and distribution-marketing management (Green Mountain College). After meeting Menner during a presentation at Castleton State College, I realized he reminded me of myself. His inspiring story encouraged me to believe I can and will achieve my goals because of the determination and drive he has shown me I possess. I know I can accomplish the unimaginable, because of Menner’s success.

    Read More

  • Howard Schultz Book Report

    1205 Words  | 3 Pages

    Entrepreneurship is defined as, “The capacity and willingness to develop, organize and manage a business venture along with any of its risks in order to make a profit.” Although this may seem to be a common business strategy, it is incredibly difficult for an individual to have the strength and perseverance to not only create; but support and foster their idea from scrutiny and destruction. That kind of personal resilience is something that I personally am awestruck by, and it is my hope one day to possess the same qualities when pursuing my own entrepreneurial venture. I can only dream of achieving the same level of achievement as Howard Schultz, but I aspire to be an even greater businessman and innovator during my career.

    Read More

  • Book: Gung Ho

    1760 Words  | 4 Pages

    Gung Ho is a great idea to help a business become as successful as possible by looking at the internal workings of the company. The idea of Gung Ho starts with the most basic part of a company, the employees. If your employees are happy and excited about working at your company, then productivity will increase. Everyone will work harder for something they think is worthwhile. Take my classes and myself for example. I will be tempted to work harder and study more in a class that I think is worth my time and a class that I enjoy. Professors at Methodist College could learn a lot from this book. If they would try to make classes more enjoyable, instead of standing up and lecturing and reading straight from the book, then perhaps students would be more interested. Some of my favorite classes are with Mr. Hogge. Not because they are easy classes, because its not, but because he makes class fun with the stories and the way he teaches the material.

    Read More

  • Selling The Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing

    2101 Words  | 5 Pages

    The downside of this book is that it does not go into details. Aside from showing how other did it, the author rarely tells how to specifically apply it to your situation. However, in overall, I can say that it was an inspirational read. It gave me a whole new perspective about marketing.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Outliers By Malcolm Gladwell Essay

    472 Words  | 1 Pages

    Gladwell proves that although luck is a major factor of success, what can make one successful is taking advantage of the opportunities that present themselves due to the lucky circumstances. Bill Gates had a lucky series of events that lead him to who he was. He was fortunate enough to attend a private school that had a computer club, a remarkable occurrence for that time. Jumping on that chance, Gates was the given the opening to work for the ISI (Information Sciences Inc.). He took

    Read More

  • ‘The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder

    1766 Words  | 4 Pages

    There is I believe a single quote from this book that encapsulates almost entirely its underlying message:

    Read More

  • Sonnet My Interesting Cat

    684 Words  | 2 Pages

    This book means a lot to me it can help you with problems like greed

    Read More

  • Randy Love Book Review

    596 Words  | 2 Pages

    The author uses his book to explain the value of education, self improvement and grabbing life’s opportunities as they come :D , although it wasn’t wide spread throughout

    Read More

  • THE GOAL

    2037 Words  | 5 Pages

    In a nutshell, I would say the novel provides a good understanding which closely relates to the course. This novel illustrated the process of ongoing improvement inside a manufacturing plant. Last but not the least, the author taught us how to think before solving a problem as well as how to apply the approach to solve a problem.

    Read More

  • Turning A Profit As A Contractor

    991 Words  | 2 Pages

    The first thing, I learned is have weekly meetings with all project team and office staff to keep everyone involved on the project and status of things. So there’s no confusion or miscommunication of what one is supposed to be doing and how since it will be a time of explain, showing, and actually performing the tasks you need to do. The Second lesson I learned is before you estimate a job, take some time to figure out your profit and overhead you want to make in order to make sure your selling the job at the price that worth you doing it and not losing the job by giving the job away to the owner for free, since you under estimated the job. The final lesson I learned from reading this book is if you re in financial trouble don’t suffer, ask around and get somebody specialized in the thing you need help in and bring you out of financial trouble and work with closely to build that professional relationship, since they might need your expertise at some point so be in contact throughout the time when you in business. In conclusion what I liked abut the book is how it followed a story timeline and always made sure you understood the lesson they were teaching in each

    Read More

  • A Successful Entrepreneurs In Phil Knight's Shoe Dog

    1056 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many books I’ve read about entrepreneurs follow a common, and I believe misleading, storyline. It goes like this: A sharp entrepreneur gets a world-changing idea, develops a clear business strategy, recruits a crack team of partners, and together they rocket to fame and riches. Reading these accounts, I’m always struck by how they make their achievements appear to be the inevitable result of some great prescience or unusual skill. It’s no wonder publishers churn out “how-to” titles packed with tidy checklists, 5-step programs, and other simplistic recipes for entrepreneurial success.

    Read More

  • How to win friends

    755 Words  | 2 Pages

    ... and how to influence them in a way that they will love you to become their leader. You have to get out of the idea that everything is straightforward and easy and give yourself new thoughts and ideas and set your mind to new dreams and new motivations. This book will help me make better friends that are longer lasting and understanding quicker than ever before. I do believe that it will help you increase your prestige and your ability to get things done with other people. It will increase your power to earn more than ever and make you a better leader, a leader who not only leads but one who is willing to get to other people’s level and help drive the situation. It will help me become a better speaker and handle conversations very well. Dale Carnegie really made a masterpiece that should be read to young kids when they are still in the elementary school stages.

    Read More

  • And Then I Met Margaret Essay

    573 Words  | 2 Pages

    I learned many life lessons from reading this book. I learned to remain true to myself rather than fitting in. Hard work, following protocols and not cutting corners is a reoccurring theme in this book. I learned to never to underestimate myself. I learned that rather than to embarrass people for doing wrong, it is a more valuable lesson to show kindness to them. It pays to be smart when one is involved in business dealings. The book has typical values and lessons identified in inspirational books but delivered in a quite a unique way. The author is shown to possess good values. He was courageous, hard-working and resilient. He equally had fun with some daring adventures. The author also wrote about his flaws and the mistakes he made which makes this book easy to relate to. He picked himself up after every set back he

    Read More

  • Reflection About An Entrepreneur

    1110 Words  | 3 Pages

    We learned a lot of things in this course, but I think the most important lesson I learned is that it’s not easy to be an entrepreneur. I was surprised to hear in the first class that 80% of startups fail, but after reading The Art of Start and E-myth Revisited I understood why this happens more often than one might expects. Some people start their own businesses for the wrong reason and some start with wrong mindset. I’ve always thought that if someone has a brilliant business idea and hardworking they will succeed and grow their business. However, now I know that there are many things to consider before starting any business. In fact, there are many strategies that an entrepreneur could follow to achieve success, such as know your customers, work “on” the business, and how

    Read More

More about Ben Horowitz: Personal Analysis

Open Document