Ben Horowitz: “Do not expect life to be fair. It will only defeat you.” The Andreessen Horowitz co-founder is asked for advice that he has found useful in his own life. Ben responds: “The thing that I would say has had the biggest effect on me is something my father said to me years ago: ‘Life isn’t fair.’ That advice seems really simple, but the thing I’ve seen that defeats people more than any other thing in life is the expectation of some fairness.” He continues: “There are all kinds of things that are going to happen to you that don’t happen to other people and are completely unfair. But it doesn’t matter because that’s the way it is. And as soon as you can get that idea out of your mind [that life should be fair], you can just deal with it… ‘What should I do now?’ is the real question — not ‘How do I go back and get people to be fair?’… Life’s not fair. That’s the nature of it. If you think about it more than five seconds, you’ll realize that… As an individual, do not expect anything to be fair. It will only defeat you.” Source: @lennysan (Sep 2025)