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Ben Horowitz
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What You Do Is Who You Are: How to Create Your Business Culture Paperback – October 21, 2019

by Ben Horowitz (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars 1,874 ratings
Ben Horowitz, a leading venture capitalist, modern management expert, and New York Times bestselling author combines lessons both from history and modern organisational practice with practical and often surprising advice to help us build cultures that can weather both good and bad times. The times and circumstances in which people were raised often shape them – yet a few leaders have managed to shape their times. In this follow-up to the bestselling business classic The Hard Thing About Hard Things, Ben Horowitz turns his attention to a question crucial to every How do you create and sustain the culture you want? This book is a journey through cultures ancient to modern, spotlighting models of leadership and culture-building from the samurai to prison gangs. Along the way, it answers fundamental Who are we? How do people talk about us when we’re not around? How do we treat our customers? Can we be trusted? Because who you are is not the values you list on the wall. It’s not what you say in a company-wide meeting. It’s not your marketing campaign. It’s not even what you believe. Who you are is what you do. This book will help you do the things needed to become the kind of leader you want to be – and others want to follow.
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  1. Print length
    288 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    HarperCollins GB
  4. Publication date
    October 21, 2019
  5. Dimensions
    6.02 x 0.71 x 9.21 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0008356122
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0008356125
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Popular Highlights in this book
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  1. In any human interaction, the required amount of communication is inversely proportional to the level of trust.
    Highlighted by 2,688 Kindle readers
  2. Building a great culture means adapting it to circumstances. And that often means bringing in outside leadership from the culture you need to penetrate or master.
    Highlighted by 1,922 Kindle readers
  3. Who you are is not the values you list on the wall. It’s not what you say at an all-hands. It’s not your marketing campaign. It’s not even what you believe. It’s what you do. What you do is who you are.
    Highlighted by 1,669 Kindle readers
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarperCollins GB (October 21, 2019)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0008356122
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0008356125
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.5 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.02 x 0.71 x 9.21 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 out of 5 stars 1,874 ratings

About the author

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Ben Horowitz

Ben Horowitz

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Ben Horowitz is the cofounder and general partner of Andreessen Horowitz, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that invests in entrepreneurs building the next generation of leading technology companies. The firm's investments include Airbnb, GitHub, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Previously, he was cofounder and CEO of Opsware, formerly Loudcloud, which was acquired by Hewlett-Packard for $1.6 billion in 2007. Horowitz writes about his experiences and insights from his career as a computer science student, software engineer, cofounder, CEO, and investor in a blog that is read by nearly 10 million people. He has also been featured in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the New Yorker, Fortune, the Economist, and Bloomberg Businessweek, among others. Horowitz lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife Felicia.

Follow him on Twitter @bhorowitz and his blog, www.bhorowitz.com.

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4.5 out of 5 stars
1,874 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book an amazing read with practical advice on real-world dilemmas. They appreciate how it examines organizational culture, with one customer noting how it translates findings into actionable insights for business.

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28 customers mention "Readability"28 positive0 negative

Customers find the book highly readable, describing it as an amazing and fun read, with one customer noting it's a must-read for founders.

"I really enjoyed reading this book. It's easy to read and interesting. Kept my attention...." Read more

"It's a good book, the reason it got 4 stars instead of 5 is that Ben (or his co/ghost author?)..." Read more

"...what this book does is lay a solid foundation and then articulate where things go wrong, and impress the art of defining your virtues in such a way..." Read more

"...The result is a riveting read and a brilliant guidebook. I finished the book in a week and I've already recommended it to two of my colleagues." Read more

20 customers mention "Insight"18 positive2 negative

Customers find the book insightful, particularly appreciating its practical advice on real-world dilemmas and how it uses stories to illustrate principles.

"I really enjoyed reading this book. It's easy to read and interesting. Kept my attention...." Read more

"...Ben does use stories to illustrates principles, and whether it is accurate or not is not really the point...." Read more

"Ben’s blend of storytelling, anecdotes and guardrails are enjoyable to digest...." Read more

"...The basic premise is that actions are louder than words. The real life and often personal examples Horowitz uses bear out this premise...." Read more

15 customers mention "Culture"15 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's examination of culture with practical advice, noting that culture is the new currency and essential for business success.

"...Kept my attention. The book has a variety of examples regarding how cultures are made and also there applications in other fields...." Read more

"...Shows you different styles, culture and you must achieve the one that fits you or your organization." Read more

"...A solid business read for its unique perspective, historical lessons and practical counsel. Check it out." Read more

"I read this, and think this is one of the most important books for managers and leaders (aspiring and future) to read, together with Grove's "High..." Read more

Building Culture as Do or Die Leadership Competency
5 out of 5 stars
Building Culture as Do or Die Leadership Competency
I had a chance to both hear Ben Horowitz discuss his inspiration and aims for the book as well as read the book. What this review is: it is a reflection of the parts of the book that resonated the most to me as CEO of an early stage B2B company. War analogies are HIGHLY relevant in this context. I almost felt like the book was written for me upon reading it. People working in other contexts, especially if their roles do not succeed or fail based on their company's culture, will not get as much out of this book. I did not agree with everything in the book even though I recommend it. Some cultures explored in this book I think are terrible, outdated, hypocritical and won't succeed tomorrow. This book is a buffet, feast what applies to you and leave the rest. There's plenty there. Employees at old and large legacy organizations may also not get as much out of this book. If you must build culture, you will find gems.Biggest lesson: the key is to have practices, virtues, and stories that illustrate them. You have to aggressively cultivate the culture daily.Excerpts from reading & hearing from the author of “What You Do is Who You Are” Ben Horowitz. Great tapestry of leadership lessons from diverse figures in history woven in with examples of culture from the tech sector.-There is no such thing as a perfect culture. At the same time, most cultures are hypocrisies & that’s not how it has to be. It all starts with CEO & C-suite, #board. It only matters what you do & your virtues.-Haitian revolution: How did they scale to 500K when the largest slave revolt in the U.S. was only 500? Answer: leadership-Ghengis Khan was a master of inclusion-You can't adopt someone else's culture. What worked for them probably won't work for you.On why you have to be YOURSELF:"Other people will always have ideas of what you should be, but if you try to integrate all those ideas in a way that's inconsistent with your own beliefs and personality, you will lose your mojo. If you aren't yourself, even you won't follow you.”Hi firm, Andreessen Horowitz measures employee candidates on helpfulness and that’s how they got to 52% female employees. Focus on job criteria. If you need someone who builds relationships, don’t screen for spreadsheet skills for example. Everyone should know exactly why each person is hired.
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Soheil Etemadi
    5.0 out of 5 stars Culture - Tough Topic - Presented Well
    Reviewed in the United States on November 7, 2019
    Verified Purchase
    I really enjoyed reading this book. It's easy to read and interesting. Kept my attention. The book has a variety of examples regarding how cultures are made and also there applications in other fields. It also has some good qualifications on culture. Meaning that its HARD. One of my favorite books.
    10 people found this helpful
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  • Nathan S. Collier
    4.0 out of 5 stars Hoary old technique: dredge up historical figures, project traits aligning w author's message
    Reviewed in the United States on November 7, 2019
    Verified Purchase
    It's a good book, the reason it got 4 stars instead of 5 is that Ben (or his co/ghost author?) felt compelled to follow that hoary old technique of dredging up a handful of historical figures and projecting traits on to them that allow you to espouse the principles you wish to proclaim.

    Lots of good stuff, just have to mine it out from all the filler
    36 people found this helpful
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  • Roger Grobler
    5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliantly practical
    Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2019
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    It is very hard to write about culture. There are many ways of achieving the same thing, and many very different cultures that will work, depending on the leader and the people inside the business. So to write about culture generally is very hard, but Ben brilliantly achieved this.

    It is sometimes dangerous to retrospectively fit a story to the past to make it seem plausible. Narrative fallacy is the technical term for it. Ben does use stories to illustrates principles, and whether it is accurate or not is not really the point. It is refreshing to read non-conventional stories to illustrate culture, and I suspect the stories will also stand the test of time better (unlike Good to Great, where the examples used were undone by the companies themselves post the book).

    Finally, I loved the (sometimes profane) rap lyrics at the start of every chapter. I could not always understand what the relevance was, but that does not really matter.
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  • Juan Carlos Vargas
    5.0 out of 5 stars must read
    Reviewed in the United States on November 27, 2023
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    If you are planning on beginning a start up, you are a general manager, CEO or a regular mid management you need to read this book. Definitely gives you a broad spectrum of the importance of the impact that culture has in any given organization. Shows you different styles, culture and you must achieve the one that fits you or your organization.
    One person found this helpful
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  • JamesH
    5.0 out of 5 stars Guardrails, Storytelling and History.. all in one
    Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2019
    Verified Purchase
    Ben’s blend of storytelling, anecdotes and guardrails are enjoyable to digest. There is no one answer around developing the right culture, but what this book does is lay a solid foundation and then articulate where things go wrong, and impress the art of defining your virtues in such a way that they are put into action vs air.. along the way learning more about CEO’s , historic figures (Genghis Khan, Louverture)
    4 people found this helpful
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  • Kyle Wiering
    3.0 out of 5 stars Drives home the point, repeatedly.
    Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2020
    Verified Purchase
    The conclusions without the background, or at least with more condensed background would have been sufficient to convey the points.

    Actual scenarios the author experienced were far more interesting then the historical context.

    I also found it odd that the emulated cultures were all quite violent and bereft of compassion. Even the member of the staff referenced was quite brutal to subordinates.

    In his own words, he talked primarily of "wartime [leaders] " . Not the alternative. But that is mostly beside the point. It was just distracting.
    One person found this helpful
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  • R Scheese
    4.0 out of 5 stars A unique examination of corporate culture
    Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2020
    Verified Purchase
    Just finished Ben Horowitz's best seller "What You Do Is Who You Are". An examination of culture with practical advice on building the culture you desire.

    The basic premise is that actions are louder than words. The real life and often personal examples Horowitz uses bear out this premise. What makes the book unique and thus compelling is the use of not typical corporate culture re-hashes. There are a few Apple and Amazon examples, but much of the book reflects on leading culture accomplishments such as the Haitian revolution, a prison gang, Genghis Khan and the Samurai code.

    A solid business read for its unique perspective, historical lessons and practical counsel. Check it out.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Amazon Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars High quality practical insight
    Reviewed in the United States on December 24, 2019
    Verified Purchase
    The book is full of practical advice on real-world dilemmas for build a fit-for-purpose company culture. The author synthesises the most dramatic historical cases with his own experience building a billion dollar company and advising other CEOs who built their own. The result is a riveting read and a brilliant guidebook. I finished the book in a week and I've already recommended it to two of my colleagues.
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • carlos hernandez garay
    5.0 out of 5 stars Imprescindible
    Reviewed in Spain on February 24, 2025
    Verified Purchase
    Si quieres conocer la importancia de la cultura en una organización y como se crea de abajo arriba hay que empezar por aquí
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  • Gabriel Arcari
    5.0 out of 5 stars A narrativa e exemplos descritos por Horowitz são fantásticos. Gigantesca aula sobre cultura.
    Reviewed in Brazil on November 20, 2019
    Verified Purchase
    Esperei ansiosamente pelo lançamento deste livro. Após ler The Hard Thing About Hard Things, estive no aguardo de um outro livro do Ben Horowitz.
    Em What You Do Is Who You Are, Ben demonstra que domina o assunto de Culturas Corporativas como poucos e inclusive ilustra o tema como vários exemplos históricos, o que agregou muito a narrativa.
    Ao destrinchar como as maiores empresas do mundo adotaram ou deveriam ter adotado estratégias em cultura corporativa, Horowitz escreveu mais um livro que será uma bíblia para amantes de empreendedorismo e startups.
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  • Kartikey Gupta
    5.0 out of 5 stars Bice book
    Reviewed in India on May 9, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    Interesting stories on culture building in a organization or like case studies, kind off.
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  • C. Chen
    5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding!
    Reviewed in Canada on January 25, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    This book analyzed corporate culture using various examples. What is it, how to implement it, risk/reward, leadership, etc.
    While Hard Thing About Hard Things was good, but nothing exceptional, this book is unique and complets Collins books such as Build to Last and Good to Great. Overall an outstanding work.
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  • Terry Brown
    5.0 out of 5 stars what you do IS who you are
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 5, 2022
    Verified Purchase
    The book demonstrates, through the simple title, that “your culture is how your company makes decisions when you’re not there.” That is, as a company, the behaviours we see far outweigh the slogans on the walls. Significant examples from many areas create discussion and exploration of the broad topic.

    For any leaders that doesn’t yet recognise that their behaviours are more than half of the success in their own companies and teams, it is an essential read.
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