I am not writing about becoming the CEO of your own business. I am explaining how you are the chief operating officer of your own business. Beyond that, you are the president of the company, the chairman of the board and the entire board. It is a vast operation and you are responsible for it. I refer to the mental and physical domains that you preside over. Like a more typical CEO, you don't personally know every cell and sinew (employee) in the firm. You can't. There are too many and there is too much turn-over for you to keep track of them. They have their jobs to do and for the most part, do them very well.
I think that here in the US during the summer of an early year in the 2nd decade of the 21st century as we usually label time, there are many aspects of your duties, responsibilities and potential accomplishments. The older you are, the more memories and achievements, good or bad, there are that have affected who and what you are. If you are reasonably aware, there are quite a few interests and projects that you have going or are interested in undertaking. Of course, a little thought reminds you of many you have begun but forgotten about or been distracted from or lost interest in.
As CEO, you are more responsible than anyone else for the whole operation. That means that your spouse, your parents, your kids, your pastor or rabbi or priest, your mayor or governor, while all members of the board with some say in what goes on around you, have neither the knowledge nor the responsibility that you have to watch over operations and guide them. With your education and experience, your familiarity with where you have been and where you are going, you may have to say "No" to some group inside or outside of the company, when you don't feel that things are headed in the right direction. It won't be easy. No matter what decision you make, including attempts to make no decision, there will be a chorus of experienced and authoritative voices articulating why you must do what they advocate.
As a fellow CEO wrestling with my own problems and projects, political infights and vagaries, confusions and competition, I salute your competence, your patience and your imagination. I frequently use you as a model and inspiration.
