“What You Do Is Who You Are” by Ben Horowitz – Book Review and Reflections for Life

There are some books that entertain you, others that enlighten, and still others that evoke an emotional response. Rare is the business book that will do all of them. “What You Do Is Who You Are” is that rare book that accomplishes all three. I will briefly cover “Enlightenment” and “Entertainment” and then move on to what made this book moving for me, and ultimately why I think reading it will improve your life — not just in a professional sense, but in a deeply personal way.

Re: Enlightenment: Covered in the book are historical figures and ideas ranging from Toussaint Louverture, leader of the Haitian Revolution and builder of culture; Genghis Khan, a force for inclusivity; Shaka Senghor, a former inmate who transformed himself in prison and became an influential advocate for criminal justice reform — a paragon example for the title of the book: what you do is who you are; concepts of Bushido and how Samurai virtues outweigh abstract values (because a virtue implies action whereas a value may only imply lip service)… there is also the idea of “the shocking example” as revealed by Sun Tzu and carried over into corporate culture. There are also many moments that serve as flashpoints for imagining what we might do if we were in the shoes of some figure from the book.

Re: Entertainment: The book covers examples from Horowitz’s own experiences building culture, finding champions and dealing with dishonest employees. One memorable anecdote is about someone like Mark Cranney who may not have seemed an immediate culture fit, but became integral to the success of one of Horowitz’s companies. Beyond that, Horowitz’s personality comes through in such a way that while many of us will likely never have a direct interaction with him, you will feel as if you had a several hours long conversation with him. As an aside, I have read of GPTs that can mimic an interaction between you and an illustrious figure so you can “pick their brain”. I also have read “Top 10 Takeaways” for books like this — often to jog my memory — but I’m cautious to never ever treat them as a substitute. The reason? It is not just the bulleted takeaways, or summaries, which are of value, but the larger context and the experience of being amidst ideas originally articulated by their author. No one would consider reading the bullet points of a movie to be the equivalent of watching it, and I wish that mindset were more prevalent in non-fiction. Reading this book (and really most books) in their totality, as conceived by their author, are the closest many of us will ever get to being mentored by a luminary. So, read it.

Re: To Be Moved: and perhaps my very inspiration to write this review… A few months ago, I wrote about “Your Company Is Your Castle” by Sandeep Chennakeshu on LinkedIn. The book felt like a sequel to “Only The Paranoid Survive” by Andy Grove, in that it answered many questions about how to navigate Inflection Points. While “Only the Paranoid” seemed to define the problem, I felt “Your Company” answered. However, perhaps the longest lasting memory of “Your Company Is Your Castle” is an anecdote about Sidney Weinberg who rose from janitor to the CEO of Goldman Sachs. It was because a senior partner at Goldman (as I recollect) saw the potential in Weinberg and gave him an opportunity to make good on it.

The most memorable person in “What You Do Is Who You Are” (for me) was Toussaint Louverture. Born a slave, he taught himself to read, was manumitted sometime between 1772 and 1776, married in 1776, became a successful force in business, ultimately the leader of the Haitian revolution, and military leader working with both the Spanish and French. Eventually, he was betrayed, and died a prisoner of Napoleon.

The life and times of Toussaint Louverture might be one of the greatest movies not yet made, and despite his life ending in tragedy — his life is one of the greatest epics I have ever heard.

As we read of layoffs, experience them firsthand or through someone we know, hear of jobs that AI may replace; as some of us fight to be seen in our workplace, or be seen in the first place and embark on a new career; as we rejoice and retell Hollywood stories of people getting their first big break… I think of Sidney Weinberg, Toussaint Louverture, and perhaps even the Biblical story of Joseph sold into slavery by his brothers, who through prophetic dream interpretation rose to be the Pharaoh’s second in command. What exactly it is I think of, and perhaps specifically an epiphany the direct result of “What You Do Is Who You Are“, is: most of us will NOT be Sidney Weinberg, Toussaint Louverture, Joseph, or among history’s greatest cast of characters… and yet, if we are in a position of authority (at whatever level) we might be able to play the supporting role of the person who sees the potential and opens the door. Some of us may be the person who sees more than a janitor and provides a path to advancement, or inspired by the character of another serve as a catalyst for their freedom — or in 2023, perhaps serve as a catalyst for one’s freedom to succeed; and in the example of Joseph, though we may be cast in opposition to someone else: if we let empathy be more than a word under the soft skills heading on our resume, or a check-off word in an interview… we might just be the stepping stone for someone to achieve their destiny.

And if all we might be is a stepping stone, or a hand that throws a life preserver… might that be an epic calling in its own right?

Thinking of Horowitz’s book, which is a deep dive into creating the type of company culture that mirrors who are you, I think to myself that being a force for culture need not stop or start at the office, but might carry over into our own lives in such a way that we might seek to become those who not only identify but also create opportunities… at any scale, and for anyone. I would not go as far as suggesting impossible altruism for everyone and anyone, or implying that guilt should be a handcuff, but think it a fair point to not look away when life offers us the opportunity to build the culture we want: whether corporate or societal. And though we might not immediately be capable of being empathetic in a meaningful way, perhaps we might at least embrace the precursory (and DaVincian) “step” of always being (or at least trying to be) curious. For, even if you start off by mimicking the action of curiosity in other people, it is impossible to NOT have your imagination piqued when you dive into the infinite potential of another human being.

In the context of “you are what you do”, to walk in someone else’s shoes is often not the punishment that some make it out to be, but a reward that you might step outside of yourself.

Amidst the final thoughts of the book is a call for building Trust into one’s culture.

It was very interesting to hear about Trust, because in the context of business, we often hear that something is well “just business”, and essentially that the survival of a business is more important than any one employee. While I understand this, I wonder if these two ideas are antithetical.

By means of an analogy, would you (or should you) trust going sailing with someone who has stated they would throw you overboard in the event that bad weather or otherwise caused things not to go as planned? While the book doesn’t answer that question, it does give us pause to consider many questions like it. If not directly, it serves as a flashpoint for us to consider difficult situations where not only our own honor and dignity might be at stake, but the fates of other people. And perhaps what better way to determine who we are than through the choices we make when the chips are down.

Considering Genghis Khan and those he conquered, or Shaka Senghor and those he led and transformed in prison, it would seem that important matters of culture building have no easy answers; but simultaneously, to build a culture worth living in (corporate or in a social sense), it would seem that a decent starting place might be considering the “culture” you build into all the relationships around you.

RECAP: “What You Do Is Who You Are” is much more than the stories of the paragon people and ideas featured, it’s much more than the anecdotes: it is a mirror for the reader to reflect upon, “Who are you? Based on what you do?” or “What are the actions that define you?” (not in “I did X, measured by Y, as catalyzed by Z”) but what doors might you open? What role might you play on the human stage?

To take a chapter straight out of Horowitz’s book, we look to Bushido and the Samurai’s focus on constant preparation for death. Thus: if you were to die tomorrow, what might people say at your funeral? Would you be missed only for the things you have done, or might you also be missed for the rare opportunities that only you had the vision and capability of creating?

This book, to me, invaluable for the concrete lessons provided, was much more a rallying cry to the idea of unlimited human potential (should we choose to see it)… a musing about “what small incident might’ve prevented (as opposed to caused) a life worthy of remembrance and reflection”.

For you, the potential reader, I don’t know if the book will have the same effect on you as it did for me, but if it causes you to wonder what greater opportunities you might create in the world, how much better a world might we live in?

This is the book: https://a16z.com/book/whatyoudo/

This is Ben Horowitz on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhorowitz

This is my LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adweissman/