In life, you don't have a level of confrontation and the nonsense you run into when you're a CEO. CEOs aren't born.

The key to high-quality communication is trust, and its hard to trust somebody that you dont know.

Don't punk out and don't quit.

In Silicon Valley, when you're a private company, the entrepreneur can do no wrong.

Every time you make the hard, correct decision you become a bit more courageous, and every time you make the easy, wrong decision you become a bit more cowardly. If you are CEO, these choices will lead to a courageous or cowardly company.

The thing that's confusing for investors is that founders don't know how to be CEO. I didn't know how to do the job when I was a CEO. Founder CEOs don't know how to be CEOs, but it doesn't mean they can't learn. The question is... can the founder learn that job and can they tolerate all mistakes they will make doing it?

Note to self: It’s a good idea to ask, “What am I not doing?