Most CEOs are CEOs because they started the businesses they run - not because they are abnormally smart or qualified.
Often they’re the least qualified people in the company, since they’re the only ones who didn’t go through an interview process.
Most CEOs are CEOs because they started the businesses they run - not because they are abnormally smart or qualified. Often they’re the least qualified people in the company, since they’re the only ones who didn’t go through an interview process.
If you're the CEO of a fast-growing startup, the mistake you'll make in the next year that you'll regret most will probably be a hiring mistake. Possibly hiring someone established, which you'll feel you should do now you're getting big, and which VCs will strongly encourage.
Everyone wants to be a founder, but they don’t understand exactly what that means. Being the leader sucks because you’re ultimately responsible not only for your performance but also for the performance of your entire team, the market, your investors, your competitors, and even your customers. Most people calling themselves founders today are just
... See moreJason Calacanis • Angel: How to Invest in Technology Startups—Timeless Advice from an Angel Investor Who Turned $100,000 into $100,000,000
Being CEO also requires a broad set of more advanced skills, but the key to reaching the advanced level and feeling like you were born to be CEO is mastering the unnatural. If you are a founder CEO and you feel awkward or incompetent when doing some of these things and believe there is no way that you’ll be able to do it when your company is one hu
... See moreBen Horowitz • The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers
It turns out that a lot of billion-dollar startup founders, like Xu, also lack this kind of direct work experience in the industry they are disrupting. Among billion-dollar companies, fewer than 50 percent of founding CEOs and fewer than 30 percent of founding CxOs had much, if any, work experience that directly related to their startups. This mean
... See moreAli Tamaseb • Super Founders: What Data Reveals About Billion-Dollar Startups
executives, are unique. The value of a CEO lies in the person's experience, judgment, vision and instinct to guide the countless decisions that a company must make every day. Spending hours thinking deeply about a single problem is a waste of that value. It would be better to hire smart people to think deeply about the problem and present possible
... See moreedify.me • Summary of 'Deep Work' by Cal Newport. (2 Summaries in 1: In-Depth Summary and Bonus 2-Page PDF.)
We should also acknowledge the role that luck, privilege, and access played in the success of many of these founders. Even the smartest people with the best ideas got lucky somewhere. What is important, though, is that these founders kept building until their luck came through.