The Hard Thing About Hard Things - Ben Horowitz

Another business book. This one with some great insights into how to manage your business effectively. Tons of great ideas came from reading this. 

1. Prioritize Training
For us this means setting expectations with reps and other partners. Define what success looks like. Define communication expectations. Etc.

2. Define Company Culture
Company culture reflects your values. When you hire or look for partners, look for people who share those values and will therefore fit into your culture...

Here's our company culture. and values...

• Unpretentious
• Honesty
• Integrity
• Tasteful
• Not Shallow
  • Never dazzled by offices, clothes or cars. We only care about what matters most: the work and the results
• Respectful and Modest
  • if we’re late, we buy.
• Entrepreneurial and Aggressive
• Nonjudgmental of projects, people and opportunities
• Always Open to Opportunity
  • Establish that policy. Nothing is beneath us whole cloth. We make decisions on a project by project basis. We know our tastes better than anyone. 
• Always Willing to Pass It Forward
  • Make introductions a habit. Connect people. 
• Always Learning and Improving
  • We have a READING WEEK once per quarter. This is when all we do is read and take notes. It keeps us focused on improvement and reminds us that we can always be better.
• Know That We Can Master Anything
  • We are incremental learners. GIven the time, we can master anything. Remember that, and never be intimidated. 

A lot of that doesn't line up with "Hollywood" thinking, and THAT is how it will guide us to find the right partners...

3. Don't Hire Big Execs for a Small Company
Big execs are used to dealing with incoming calls and opportunities and emails all day. They aren't used to seeking and creating those opportunities. Small, start-up execs are hungrier and more aggressive. We need to work with those types of people.

4. Effective Staff Meetings

First: Create agendas and email them out ahead of time.

Second: here are some handy questions to ask...

What am I not doing?
What clients do you admire and why? 
What clients are kicking our ass? 
If you were me, what changes would you make strategically?
What's the biggest opportunity we're missing out on? 
What are we not doing that we should be doing? 

5. Incentivize Sale
A big part of our reps jobs is to sell our shit. If they were selling mattresses, we would incentivize them above their salaries. They are selling in a more competitive field, so let's consider incentivizing the hard stuff.

- studio comedy punch up 
- studio comedy writer's room
- staffing if the season is not going well

The competition is NOT doing this. This can be part of our edge. 

6. Work when they are sleeping...

There are lots of times when it is said that Hollywood is "off" for huge durations of time, but I don't think we should subscribe to that.

If December is a time when nothing gets done, then a way we excel above the competition is to GET SHIT DONE in December.

Find the other people who think this way and work with them. They are hungry. They aren't resting on their laurels. We can all get to the top together.

7. Define roles

If you have three agents, two mangers, four lawyers, WHATEVER, try to understand who does what, when and why. Know who to go to for what in order to streamline.

8. Create a Feedback Process
Schedule feedback for once every quarter. Discuss what's going well and what's not, what the goals should be, what should be re-calibrated. 

This is for us as writing partners, but also for the people we work with. 

9. Make the Hard Decisions (It Can Be Lonely)

We have lots of advisers, and they can be helpful, but WE must make the lonely decisions. Only we have a full understanding of who we are, what we've done, what we want, what we're capable of. We have to be brave enough to make the calls and follow our instincts. Have processes in place to check on those decisions later, but be willing to make big decisions based on incomplete information (that is so much of the business side of this job).