Do you know a C.E.O. personally?

Question

And, if you care to answer these as well...

Do you feel that the average C.E.O. works hard and deserves what he/she rakes in?

Do you hope to be a C.E.O. in the future?

Answer 1

I work for a financial institution whereby I know many CEO's of privately held profitable companies. I have to say that most are right place, right time kind of people. A few worked hard at a dream kinda story, but very very few.

The 'deserve' thing is kinda hard to answer. I mean, if the average houshold income in America is $40-50K with two working adults and someone has a personal income of $40-50 million, 'deserve' isn't really a word I can use to describe either situation.

In the future I hope to work for myself, with whatever title. That way I'm always sure the boss will like me :)

Answer 2

Yes, several actually, including my uncle who is CEO of a really big (Fortune 500) company in the computer business.

Yes, not only does the average CEO work hard, s/he has worked WAY harder for a very long period of time than typical people who complain about CEO's. Does s/he deserve it? Who am I to judge - it's a free market economy (Thank God!) we live in, and the market ultimately decides what CEO's are worth.

My uncle has:
- immigrated (legally) to the US, alone, as a teenager
- graduated with honors from college, then masters and phd, paying his own way the whole time
- worked his way up in the industry over several decades
- moved his family from Texas, to Scotland, to Florida, California, Arizona, back to Texas, and probably a couple I've forgotten.
- Spends more time on airplanes than anybody I know. We had a family get togther a few weeks back, on a Sunday afternoon. He had arrived from Singapore at 1 am, then drove with my aunt 4 hours to the reunion, then drove back home, then on a plane to Paris and Germany the next day.
- In person, he's one of the shy, soft-spoken guys you'd never peg as a CEO. But he has a well deserved reputation for toughness in business. His company has gone from nearly out of business #2 player when he took over, to very profitable and gaining fast on #1 now.

By the way, I'm also a CEO now, of my huge multinational (one-person) consulting organization.

I think more people should think of themselves as CEO of their own corporation, they'd benefit from that kind of mindset.

Thanks - good question.

Scott

Answer 3

We have a friend of the family who is a CEO of a pharmaceutical company. He's very successful, but personally he's a real as*hole. I think he does work hard and he really is a stickler about detail, however I'd much rather have my life then be him any day of the week.

Answer 4

CEO now is the only way to make a REAL decent living
average and middle class workers are getting worse

Answer 5

I am one but of a dozen people in my co.