Execution: The CEO's Job, Focus, Intensity

A thousand people have every good idea. What separates the one company that wins is execution, and execution starts with the CEO's actual job: set the vision and evangelize it, recruit, fundraise, and make sure the whole company executes to a high bar. No one else can own those.

The two ingredients Altman names are focus and intensity. Focus: say no to almost everything, because startups die of indigestion more than starvation. Intensity: small amounts of extra speed compound. He is absolute about the pace question: 'I have never, not once, seen a slow-moving founder be really successful.'

He's also honest about the cost. The company will be on your mind all the time; running a startup is not compatible with a balanced life during the early years. Don't make excuses, stay a little paranoid about what could kill you, and keep shipping.