Ben Horowitz

You have to be responsible when you're running an organization, and firing people who are your friends is part of that responsibility.

You read these management books that say, 'These are the hard things about running a company.' But those aren't really the hard things. The hard things are when you have to layoff half your company, or you have to fire your best friend. Or you have to figure out a way not to go bankrupt.

In my own experience as a C.E.O., I would find myself laying awake at 3 A.M. asking questions about my business, and there weren't management books out there that could help me.

Most books on management are written by management consultants, and they study successful companies after they've succeeded, so they only hear winning stories.

Nobody knows how to be a CEO. It's something you have to learn. It's a very lonely job.

I think when companies are struggling, they don't want to talk to the press. The guys who write business books aren't interested in it because nobody wants to learn what it's like to be a mess, you want to learn how to be successful. That's slanted the whole thing quite a bit.