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Better advice from you, Wm.

If you can make yourself indispensable to the company, that is good.

Of course, Charlie Degaulle said, “The cemeteries are filled with indispensable men.”

BRC
http://www.themusingsofthebigredcar.com

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Big difference — YOU didn’t own the league, the team, or the game.

In entrepreneurial business, YOU may actually own the company. It is property.

Many CEOs are too quick to do the “right thing” rather than owning their own destiny.

When you own the company, you are entitled to do whatever you want. The very best CEOs ultimately work themselves out of a job by hiring brilliant people and delegating everything.

The best combat engineer company I ever ran in the Army, I went to the Officer’s Club pool at 3:00 PM three days a week. The General spied me there and said, “WTF?”

I said, “We made the highest score in the entire US Army on our ARTEP last week (Army Training and Evalution Program — World Series exam).

He said, “Carry on, Captain.”

You own the company. You build it in your image. You pick the fruit. You enjy life. Sometimes, it is all about YOU. You earned that right.

BRC
http://www.themusingsofthebigredcar.com

“if you don’t hit a rough patch, you’re not really in charge” but that doesn’t mean that Founder/CEOs shouldn’t be penalized for “going through a rough patch” does it? I’m a startup founder/CEO and if the point comes that somebody tries to remove me from my company… they’re going to have to drag me out of here kicking and screaming; but that isn’t to say that I don’t have to earn the right to stay. Obviously, it is unrealistic for anyone, in any walk of life, to go without their struggles… but that doesn’t (and in my opinion shouldn’t) make these struggles acceptable. When you’re steering the ship… you get credit for the wins and you get blamed for the losses, somebody always needs to be accountable.

My biggest takeaway from this post is that maintaining control is important for just that reason… to mitigate the damage caused by failures, given that operating in an ecosystem where fear of failure hamstrings true growth and progress. I think a lot of startup founder/CEOs get removed because they’re not good enough anymore and I think, generally speaking, thats how life works… I wanted to play baseball for the rest of my life and I couldn’t because I got to a point where I was no longer good enough to keep playing. Not to beat a dead horse… but isn’t the aforementioned control an asset to control the variables that may prevent a founder/CEO, from staying in the game, assuming that they are actually the best man/women for the job?

Not everybody gets a trophy, thats how it should be… but the best team needs to actually get the trophy and if the guy running the tournament gives the trophy to his kid’s team when they came in 2nd, it doesn’t work.

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Hard not to agree with you since I run a little shop called The Wisdom of the Campfire. By invitation only, I advise startup CEOs under the guise of coaching.

If you don’t hit a rough patch, you’re not really in charge. As Eisenhower said, “The first casualty upon contact with the enemy is the plan.”

The very best athletes in the world, at the top of their game, employ coaches to get that last 0.00001% of improvement. Why not CEOs?

I find that enlightened VCs are requiring their CEOs to get such assistance.

One of the most important aspects of a sound coaching arrangement is the ability for a CEO to unburden themselves to someone who has actually been a CEO and who cannot fire them and who has no fiduciary duty to report bad news to other boardmembers or investors.

It’s a hard world out there for a CEO and a smart CEO gets as much assistance as they can. It’s always cheaper to rent experience than to create it.

Maybe I forgot to mention — it works.

BRC
http://www.themusingsofthebigredcar.com

Thanks for your reply. Your post made me think though- why should Founder CEOs be penalized if they are going through a rough patch? All great leaders have moments of vulnerability and weakness. I think perhaps an integral part of the management team should include a counselor- perhaps similar to Counselor Troi in Star Trek: TNG. What do you think?

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Sierra —

Nice read and lovely website(s).

The Boss was a CEO of public and private companies for 33 years. From the start, he’s been a control freak but, more importantly, as a business strategy he quickly discovered the pragmatic and practical advantages of controlling one’s own destiny in the C suite, the boardroom, on the cap table, and at the pay window.

The voices in his head are all his own.

He works with startups primarily. In your similar article, you are dealing with the babies who have been able to exit the cradle and walk around the nursery. The Boss deals with them from the moment of conception until they can talk and walk. Bit more granular and vulnerable.

It’s all real because there is really no other way, is there?

BRC
http://www.themusingsofthebigredcar.com

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Yeah, well at least it’s cold, no?

Who lives on the ocean?

You or the BRC? You do. Enjoy.

BRC
http://www.themusingsofthebigredcar.com