The 3 Hard Truths Every Entrepreneur Must Embrace

For anyone that wants to start their own business or even if you are a startup junkie and want to ‘peek behind the curtain’, The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz is an absolute must-read.

You’ve heard me talk about this book before and you’ll hear me talk about it again. It really is that good.

I was recently reading some portions of it again there were 3 themes in particular that jumped out to me:

There are no new problems under the sun

There’s no playbook

There are no silver bullets

Let’s break each of these down a little.

Number 1. There are no new problems under the sun

When I left my previous company, I had this one big fear that it was a ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ experience that I would never have again. This was compounded by several leaders that said things to me like:

• Well, that was fun, probably back to the bank now, right?

• That was the apex of your career.

• You won the lottery with that chance, it’s not going to happen again.

But after 2 months of starting Leadr, I realized that I hadn’t felt imposter syndrome once. Instead, I felt completely confident in myself, what I know, and what I have to offer. I felt like I was exactly where I was supposed to be.

Here’s a text to a buddy of mine at that time about 4 years ago:

I think one reason [that I haven’t felt imposter syndrome] is that I’ve realized that everything I learned is transferable and wasn’t isolated to that one experience.

This was such an important lesson to me and it’s exactly what Horowitz is talking about in his book.

It’s helpful to know that there really are no new problems under the sun. That we’re not alone in the whitewater that we’re experiencing.

Not only that, but everything we're experiencing, others have experienced too (and worse).

We tend to think we're unique - and while it’s true that we are differentiated from our competitors, the highs and lows we experience are not unique.

Number 2. There’s no playbook

There are good ideas, sure. Maybe even great ones.

But there isn’t a ‘100 step guide’ that tells us exactly what we need to do to move forward.

This is actually a really common danger of early-stage companies. Problems aren't solved by saying:

“Well, let’s just do what they do!”

“Let’s just build the features that they have.”

“Let’s just hire the person that did it there and they can do it again here.”

It’s not like those are bad ideas. In fact, in some cases, maybe that’s exactly what should be done.

However, it’s not a cheat sheet.

Copying someone else’s playbook doesn’t just magically make all of your problems go away.

So as much as there are no new problems under the sun… you can’t just copy/paste answers from ChatGPT to fix your problems. Although let’s be honest…. it is really helpful. 😆

So what’s the answer? Well, the way people have done it before is just continuing to iterate and stay committed until they do find the solution.

This brings us to our last point:

Number 3. There are no "silver bullets"

There isn’t ONE decision to make that fixes all our problems.

There isn’t ONE feature we could build that suddenly makes a company go viral.

There isn’t ONE marketing campaign that changes the game.

This is such a crucial lesson.

There are obviously things we can do that will have a significant impact, but it’s much better to focus on ‘lots of lead bullets’ instead of looking for ‘the silver bullet.’

Horowitz says: “Nothing can replace sheer grit and determination.”

I love that line.

The easy way is to look for the golden ticket.

The right way is to just keep going.

I hope this encourages you, as it did for me, that success doesn’t come overnight and the journey is as important as the destination. So, keep up the determination, keep up the hope, and remember we’re all in this together.

Thanks for reading,

Lead on.

MT