The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
2.5 stars.
I want to say so many things about this book. It was recommended to me by someone I respect. They said it really inspired them. And I do think there are many inspiring points in this book. Some great stories and some solid advice and some good learnings.
But, for me, his tone/personality/writing got in the way so much that I couldn’t really enjoy any of these at all. Even the stories of when he messed up were still full of hubris.
He references being the “Jackie Robinson of barbecue” and adds rap lyrics in the beginning of every chapter for reasons that I just couldn’t figure out. The references to he vs she in the book stand out and feel awkward throughout. His story about his first date with his wife that’s meant to make him look principled or not sure what, felt awkward and a bit weird.
There were so many instances throughout the book that made me dislike him so much as a person (or at least the way he wrote this book and painted himself in the book) that it was really hard for me to connect with the advice itself.
Which, I will say, was solid in many places and if you can get past the things that drove me insane, you might indeed enjoy this book a lot.
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