[cocktailpeanuts]

To the early stage startup founders out there who read this and think:

"Hey, from today I think I'll try to become a better manager, let me go pick up that management skills and MBA book"

Please don't. Just be yourself. While working on a startup I had somehow decided that I "need better management skills" when it was barely a small startup and I should have been focusing more on product and product only, I read too many business books and became a "great manager".

A "great manager" is totally necessary once the company reaches certain level, but for most early stage startups, it will kill you. Focus on the vision and make it top priority to get to that vision even if people think you're being irrational.

I'm not saying you should be an ass, but just saying don't invest too much time trying to become a "great CEO" after reading these articles, because that's the last thing that matters in early stage startups. CEO doesn't exist in early stage startups, only irrational founders do.

[Bartweiss]

> let me go pick up that management skills and MBA book

If a founder were going to devote time to management skills, I wonder what the most beneficial topic would be?

My first two guesses are a decent guide to hiring (if one exists), and an HR guide to crisis management. CEO-style leadership is impossible in a startup, so it seems like hedging against crisis is the best bet. If you can slightly lower the odds of a bad hire or internal schism, that's probably higher-value than any marginal improvement.

I'd definitely be interested to hear other thoughts, though: whats the best rapid improvement available?

[cocktailpeanuts]

Assuming that you are working with smart people, they follow you NOT because you read a leadership book and run some good leadership tactics on them. They follow you because they "choose" to believe that you know what you're doing in the context of your startup. Remember, they are smart people. And many smart people have strong bullshit detector.

People followed Bill Gates and Steve Jobs even though they were assholes not because they were "great leaders", but these smart people chose to believe that these founders had a great understanding of the landscape and can execute.

Therefore in my experience the most helpful books were those that gave me insights on how the world around us works since that helps with your world view. It's always great to have a higher level perspective.

For example, you could have looked at the chatbot fad last year and think that chatbots are the future, and went all in. Or you could have thought deeper into why the fad was taking place and work on a deeper problem. This type of ability is what attracts smart people to work with you.

This is only possible if you have a deeper understanding of the world. So read more philosophy and science books and more books that give you a better understanding of the world, than shallow business books.

[tomjen3]

You certainly should not become an ass: become a great leader. That is very much different from being a CEO (though a CEO could be a great leader).

You can probably google and find as many books about leadership as you want, but my personal recommendation would be to just grab Extreme Ownership[1], assuming you can deal with the fact that his lessons were learned in the Iraq war (although they apply just as well to business).

[1]: https://www.amazon.com/Extreme-Ownership-U-S-Navy-SEALs-eboo...