CEO Traits and Challenges

write this as satire: There are two common traits I've seen in every CEO I've worked with: Appetite for risk taking, both personal and professional. The CEO type is the person perfectly willing to mortgage their family's home to cover an invoice to keep the business running. Most people don't have the stomach for that. Ability to survive a stress level that would make the average person crumble. You know that feeling you get when it's just one issue after another and you can never get ahead? That, times a hundred, is what it's like being a CEO. You are literally a problem fixer. Nothing comes to you unless it's a problem that you're needed to resolve. Upvote 59 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share u/Responsible_Wealth89 avatar Responsible_Wealth89 • 7h ago Man. This… this is a good response Upvote 13 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share u/upthewatwo avatar upthewatwo • 6h ago I read an interesting article about the link between leadership and psychopathy which made a lot of good observations about the traits required of a CEO. One of the lines I remember is that the CEO is there to make the best bad decision; if the problem gets up to them then it means the problem is practically unsolvable and the storm must be ploughed through with confident guidance. Upvote 10 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share Aggravating-End-7864 • 6h ago Agreed. I'd add: 3. An insatiable thirst for knowledge via books, industry publications, talking to people, etc. Every good CEO I know is the last in the room to speak - incredibly good listeners with deep attention to detail. Upvote 9 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share u/dwoj206 avatar dwoj206 • 4h ago Yeah this is great. CEOs are excellent firefighters. Last sentence is everything. Upvote 2 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share jackietea123 • 8h ago it depends.... you could become a CEO through nepotism....or by starting your own business... so a lot of work... or not a lot of work. lol Upvote 20 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share u/Popular_Adeptness_12 avatar Popular_Adeptness_12 • 10m ago Just because you get handed a business doesn’t mean you can make it last. You still have to be decent to make a business continue. Upvote Vote Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share TubularBrainRevolt • 8h ago • Edited 3h ago You can have a tiny business and call yourself a CEO. Technically you would still be one. Upvote 8 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share u/Defiant_Dickk avatar Defiant_Dickk • 3h ago No, you wouldn't. A CEO reports to a board of directors. Period. You can call yourself an astronaut if you play space video games... it doesn't mean you're an astronaut. Upvote 1 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share u/CanadianMunchies avatar CanadianMunchies • 1h ago Has anyone told Katy Perry? Upvote 2 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share u/Remarkable-Return304 avatar Remarkable-Return304 • 8h ago I think it’s more about how much you believe in what the company is doing. Not just about being driven or working a lot but CEO really NEED to love the company or have some emotional attachment or belief in what the company is doing. You don’t have to have the best qualifications either. Think the current CEO of Costco started off as a forklift driver. Upvote 5 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share HawkBoth8539 • 7h ago • Edited 2h ago First and foremost, inherited wealth. End of list. Literally, it takes absolutely no particular skill to be a CEO beyond already being wealthy. When people talk about AI replacing jobs, AI could replace a CEO in a split second - it could track financial trends and calculate vast amounts of data to determine the most profitable and successful way to move forward with the company, and without giving itself a $50 million bonus every year. Most of the work attributed to CEOs is actually done by their employees, and at the end of the day the CEO is just making a decision based on the work and data provided to them. A computer can literally do that far more effectively. Upvote 5 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share Fit_District7223 • 2h ago Finally, a sane answer. Upvote 3 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share baronbeta • 30m ago Speaking as someone who works closely with executives, this is the best answer here. Upvote Vote Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share u/fpeterHUN avatar fpeterHUN • 7h ago There are different type of CEO's. Someone puts his entire life into the company, someone hires a CEO and quasi retire, someone sells the whole company. CEO's are responsible for stuff, starting projects/distribute work. They don't actually work, they use their knowledge and cont(r)acts to run a company. In my former companies CEO's did call center work, conferences, managed projects. It is not particularly a dream job, apart of higher salary... Upvote 4 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share u/TrumpLovesEpstein4ev avatar TrumpLovesEpstein4ev • 7h ago Luck, privilege, connections, and psychopathy Upvote 4 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share Truthful-strawberry7 • 7h ago Personality traits : Consistency, thinking creatively, not believing in limitations, in a way thinking your better than others, problem solver mind, not passive Upvote 4 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share Stillpoetic45 • 7h ago vision, drive, understanding, work ethic, and willingness to take risk. Or inherit it. Upvote 4 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share lakefunOKC • 5h ago Easy to take risks as a CEO. Worst thing that happens is, you get fired and collect millions to go away. It’s easy to risk money that isn’t yours. Upvote 2 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share Stillpoetic45 • 5h ago Well yes it depends on the ceo and how you got there. If it's your own shop and build vs a company you are hired into Upvote 1 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share lakefunOKC • 3h ago Of course. I was talking like big companies, not your own. Upvote 1 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share myangelfaced • 7h ago Education ofcourse and show you're a leader instead of a boss. It will already get you far Upvote 3 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share Thegrillman2233 • 7h ago It depends what of - if you mean the CEO of Google, then… a lot. If you mean the CEO of your own window cleaning business, it’s more doable! Upvote 3 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share ApocalypseThen77 • 7h ago Being a CEO (at least a good one), involves leadership and confidence, inspiring respect and having business acumen so that others are willing to trust your decisions. They need good communication skills and some level of charm. Sometimes they have to be dispassionate (even ruthless) when presiding over decisions for the good of the company that may negatively affect employees that they know. If we’re talking about big companies, they will have tend to have a very good educational background, experience in the same or a closely linked field and in other leadership positions. They might even have a military (officer) background. Of course, that’s certainly not the only route. Some people have an awe inspiring level of talent and a nose for business and they work their way up (the fork lift driver example) or they are an entrepreneur and build their own empire. However, not every new recruit is destined to be CEO. One thing I noticed in dealing with CEOs in my career - they were always polite. The middle managers could be brusque and rude to the underlings but from the CEOs you would always receive an acknowledgment and usually thanks. Upvote 3 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share u/frootigerA avatar frootigerA • 7h ago In the US: Graduate from a top 25 university with a strong GPA Work in investment banking or consulting for 2-3 years after you graduate Get an MBA from an M7 business school. Full time is ideal because you can build connections with your classmates. Work in Private Equity, investment banking, or consulting until you see an opportunity. Maybe your portfolio company needs an interim CEO or you get headhunted. You will need to network hard and work 80-100 hours weeks in your 20s but this is your best shot at becoming a CEO of a large company. Upvote 5 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share ConnectAffect831 • 7h ago Why can’t you just start your own corporation? Why does it have to be someone else’s? Upvote 6 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share u/frootigerA avatar frootigerA • 7h ago All that takes is $150 to file articles of incorporation in your state. Now you have an S/C-corporation or LLC and you can name yourself CEO :P Upvote 7 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share kundaliniredneck1 • 4h ago I can’t tell you how many landscaping CEOs I’ve interviewed Upvote 1 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share u/Defiant_Dickk avatar Defiant_Dickk • 3h ago Unless you have a board of directors, you're not a CEO. Nobody is a "CEO" with their little website or Etsy "business". Real "Chief" titles at actual corporations report to a board of directors. If you call yourself "Chief" anything and you DO NOT report to a board of directors, then you're a laughingstock that nobody in the professional world takes seriously. Upvote 1 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share SempiternalWit • 6h ago Profile Badge for the Achievement Top 1% Commenter Top 1% Commenter u/Defiant_Dickk avatar Defiant_Dickk • 3h ago This is the answer. That along with luck and nepotism. Upvote 1 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share u/No-Payment-9574 avatar No-Payment-9574 • 8h ago stress tolerance and managing office politics really well Upvote 2 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share NorthernSoul1977 • 8h ago Be 100% focused on your job and devote your life to it. Thar's why most normal folk would run a mile to avoid it. Upvote 2 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share Gold_Age_3768 • 7h ago I would think some of them were psychopathic and ruthless. Upvote 2 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share louis_baggage • 7h ago A willingness to see things thru during tough times Upvote 2 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share ConnectAffect831 • 7h ago Psychopathy. Upvote 2 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share u/5th_times_a_charm5 avatar 5th_times_a_charm5 • 2h ago Yep, or any kind of pathological personalities like narcissism, psychopaths, sociopaths. I'm not sure what else I'm missing. These personality types have different brain structures and exhibit little to no anxiety. Sorta jealous. I'd rather have a kind soul and anxiety ridden brain. Upvote 1 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share u/No-University3032 avatar No-University3032 • 7h ago • Edited 6h ago You have to have better judgment than everyone else. For example, you have to be able to see the long term and short term visions of the company, and make decisions accordingly. And not everyone can be CEO because only some people can hold all that power to make policy changes. Sometimes businesses don't want to do much changes. Like when they are starting up, then there are probably more amateur CEOs? And you need to have experience being a ceo to be hired for that position? Upvote 2 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share Puzzlemethis-21 • 7h ago Profile Badge for the Achievement Top 1% Commenter Top 1% Commenter Start your own business is the easiest way. Upvote 2 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share NorthMathematician32 • 7h ago Be the kid of a CEO Upvote 2 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share Fluid_Anywhere_7015 • 7h ago Psychopathy. Upvote 2 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share Specialist-swiss • 7h ago For a small company everything! For a big company not much… Upvote 2 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share -----nom----- • 7h ago You don't just want to become a CEO. 😅 Upvote 2 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share GreenBeardTheCanuck • 7h ago Usually a willingness to lose other people's money on the off chance this thing you overheard once at dinner pans out. More often its about being able to sell the idea that you've got a company that could make a lot of money for investors if they front you some cash. Most CEOs are glorified marketing people who specialize in marketing made up "Dreams and Visions" to people with more money than brains. Usually not their own "Dreams and Visions" either. If they're lucky its some idea that came from their own team. If not, it's probably nonsense some Thought Leader (Snake Oil Salesman) shilling his latest con. They'll spend a bunch of money on an ill-conceived notion, and then fire an entire division of people who actually make money for the company to make up for their loses. Ability to blame others for their own failures, and take credit for others successes helps. An almost cartoonish level of hubris and narcissism that others somehow interpret as confidence, but is in no way grounded in competence is basically a necessity these days. For education you're going to want a degree bought and paid for by someone else's hard work (get used to that, if someone says they got wealthy from hard work, ask them "whose?"), probably as a legacy at an Ivy league, although you can get away with a lesser school if you're not too ambitious. You don't need to graduate or learn anything, you're there to rub elbows with the wealthy, learn their language, and figure out how to hustle them. Career, if you're starting from somewhere lower on the totem, you're probably going to want to practice the time honoured path of "Failing Upward" usually by starting several small businesses that rapidly collapse, but managing to make sure the blame, and the debt become someone else's problem. If you can successfully sell your little dumpster fire to a bigger fish and walk away before it collapses that works best. Upvote 2 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share u/FeastingOnFelines avatar FeastingOnFelines • 7h ago Varies vastly from one corporation to the next. Upvote 2 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share algernon-x • 7h ago you seem young, so I’m gonna be the realistic one and tell you that you’re never going to be a CEO of a major company. you might start your own small business………but if you don’t want to be a small business owner, I’d try to find a real career, something attainable. Most of the CEOs you’re looking up to got the job through luck and networking, not hard work. Unless you’re already top 0.001% wealthy with INSANE connections, you won’t ever be them. Regular people don’t become major CEOs because they worked hard. Privileged people get the jobs because they already have a foot in the door. But sure, if you want to own your own small town business, you could do that Upvote 2 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share DonaaldTrump • 7h ago I assume you are talking about CEO of a mid sized to large company, and not a CEO of your own one man business as loads of commenters here sarcastically started to talk about. Most likely, CEO background is in finance. Irrespective of what the business is about, the blood and day to day operations are in finance. Entry roles for this career path are in audit or other internal finance role. Personally, to get to CEO, you need to be constantly seeing the bigger picture, always ask questions about how you specific role contributes to it, always have the key objectives mind - which almost always will be a combination of 1)Growing revenue, 2)Increasing profitability, in a sustainable way, through strategic long term initiatives. An example could be at an entry level - let's say you are in an accounts receivable role, basically chasing unpaid invoices. Instead of seeing your role as having to chase X invoices per day, you treat the role as something that helps with company's cashflow. You ask your managers about those cashflow targets, you start prioritising invoices in a way that would help achieve those targets. You then notice patterns in unpaid invoices, you start working with teams selling and issuing bills to increase the probability of invoices being paid quicker. Obviously, this is a great generalisation and only a small example, there is a lot more to it, but hopefully gives you a small nugget of an idea. Upvote 2 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share u/Mammoth_Dragonfly13 avatar Mammoth_Dragonfly13 • 6h ago Sell your soul and worship money. Upvote 2 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share ReasonableComplex604 • 6h ago Profile Badge for the Achievement Top 1% Commenter Top 1% Commenter Yup…. I don’t know if all of them worship money. It definitely creates a lot of financial freedom, security and a beautiful lifestyle for your family, but I laughed out loud when I read Cell your soul. You give up your life to your work in most high paying careers, that’s for sure. Upvote 2 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share AdAmazing8187 • 6h ago My father was a fortune 100 CEO. He worked at the company for 33 years, last 11 as CEO. He started as an accountant, ran a division, then became CFO before he got tapped to run the whole show. Knowing every aspect of the company and its finances got him there. As well as being extremely personable and good with shareholders and the rank and file of the company. Upvote 2 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share AdAmazing8187 • 6h ago Oh, and luck. Lots of luck Upvote 1 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share u/Opposite_Rabbit8979 avatar Opposite_Rabbit8979 • 5h ago Willingness to sacrifice a huge percentage of your personal life - family, etc as the “needs” never end. Upvote 2 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share u/Agreeable_Gate1565 avatar Agreeable_Gate1565 • 4h ago A little sociopathy and a little psychopathy. Upvote 2 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share Ok_Solution_1282 • 3h ago The ability to be a social chameleon, charming when needed, ruthless when absolutely needed. You live, breath, eat and shit whatever it takes to keep that business running. No days off. You're the hunter and the hunted. No matter what you do? It will never be enough. And you have to be okay with that. Upvote 2 Downvote Reply reply Award Share Share Loud-Awoo • 8h ago Go offer to cut someone's lawn. That's all it really takes to lead your own company. Start somewhere - anywhere - and make it your own. Upvote 3 Downvote Reply reply Award Share

Absolutely, here’s your original statement rewritten as **satire**: --- There are two *indispensable* traits I’ve seen in every CEO I’ve worked with: **1. The Delusional Confidence to Gamble Like a Vegas Addict.** Real CEOs don’t just take risks—they *heroically* refinance their family’s home to pay an overdue Slack invoice. You might call it reckless; they call it “vision.” While most people think twice before betting the mortgage, a true CEO throws it all on the line for that startup that’s "like Uber, but for chinchilla grooming." **2. Olympic-Level Stress Endurance.** Imagine being a full-time firefighter, therapist, financial analyst, and scapegoat—all while smiling for shareholders. Being a CEO means waking up every morning to 48 new existential crises and responding with a LinkedIn post about resilience and “embracing the suck.” Their calendar is just a collage of problems too broken for anyone else to touch. Let’s be clear: CEOs aren’t “working,” they’re transcending. While you’re refilling your coffee, they’re crushing a 4-hour Zoom call on market cannibalization while internally screaming. Most humans crumble under this weight. But CEOs? They post about it on Medium and call it “growth.” --- Would you like a version that sounds like it came from *The Onion* or more like a sarcastic Reddit reply?