$46B of hard truths: Why founders fail and why you need to run toward fear | Ben Horowitz (a16z)

The job is fundamentally a leadership job. And it's a tricky leadership job because nobody is actually reporting to you.

"This or do that" refers to typical PM activities like writing specs and conducting interviews, mentioned in their discussion about product management responsibilities.

It doesn't matter if you write a good, spec or you have a good interview or you do this or do that. What matters is that the product works.

If everybody agrees with the decision, then you didn't add any value because they would've done that without you. So the only value you ever add is when you make a decision that most people don't like.

Horowitz is explaining "managerial leverage" - getting more output from your team than you could produce alone by having direct reports who drive initiatives rather than needing constant direction.

What's leverage is if you're telling me what you should do and how you can push the company forward, that's leverage, then I'm getting more than I'd have if you weren't there otherwise I could just manage a team.

You don't make people great. You find people that make you great, that make the company great, that you learned from, not the other way around.

If you're a CEO, what do you know about being CFO? Like what do you know about being VP, HR? The idea that you're going to take somebody who isn't world-class at marketing and make them world class and you don't know anything about marketing, is a dumb idea.

Look, I'm not going to write you a check for $200,000. I'll write you a check for $10 million because this company, you need to build a company. You need to really go for it if you're going to do this, otherwise you guys should stay in school.

The worst thing that you do as a leader is you hesitate on the next decision. The thing that causes you to hesitate is both decisions are horrible.

The psychological muscle you have to build to be a great leader is to be able to click in the abyss and go, 'Okay, that way's slightly better. We're going to go that way.'

The only reason to start a company is because you have an irrational desire to do so, because it's not worth the money.