Work Smarts: What CEOs Say You Need To Know to Get Ahead

Chapter 9

What It’s Really Like to Be a CEO

A businessman said to me the other day that it’s more difficult to become a Fortune 50 CEO than it is to become a professional athlete. He said: “It’s harder to get to the top of the corporate ladder than it is to be an elite athlete. Isn’t that something?”

I never thought of it that way but the more those words sank in, the more I realized he was right. Getting to what’s called the C-suite—the uppermost level of management—is a competition just like in any other sport. And like a game, there’s only one winner in the end. Jim Reynolds, the CEO of the boutique investment bank Loop Capital, is friends with many professional athletes around Chicago—former Super Bowl champs, basketball stars, golf pros.

“Each and every one of these professional athletes is an entrepreneur. Their company is themselves and their body. Once that body breaks down, it’s over,” he said. “When you’re a young athlete with quickness and speed, raw physical prowess, you learn about how to do things and how not to exert yourself so much, learn how to anticipate the plays better and read the other guys’ eyes. CEOs are the same way—they have to be on top of their game, every game. And there are hundreds of people looking to take Kobe Bryant’s spot, or LeBron James’. At the point you stop or cease growing as a professional athlete, then that’s the point you open yourself to be susceptible to the competition. You need to make sure you’re mentally at the top of the game ...