Someone Has to Run the Billion-Dollar Corporation

We were happy for a guy today when he shared two photos of himself. In the first photo – on the left –  he looked stressed out and sad. He explained that this was taken when he was running a billion-dollar corporation, and it was just too much. Then, in the photo he shared on the right, he looked relaxed and happy. He explained that this photo was taken more recently, and he is now working part-time at a low-stress endeavor while scheduling his work hours around his kids. This brought lots of applause on LinkedIn. And we are glad this guy is happier now. We’re happy for him, we’re happy for his kids and we hope this continues to work out in his favor. We would also like to point out that someone else will now have to run that billion-dollar company, and whoever does so will be engaged in an honorable pursuit. The company’s employees need good leadership. The company’s customers need great quality and excellent service. The company’s shareholders put their money at risk to back this company and have every right to expect a good return. We hope the new CEO delivers all of this and gets nicely rewarded for doing so. It will probably require hard work, personal sacrifices and a fair amount of stress management. Things that aren’t easy usually do. But they’re worthwhile also because a lot of people are better off when they get it right. The person who chooses not to take on this difficult business challenge for the sake of his/her happiness and family is making a good choice. The person who does choose to take these things on, because a lot of people are depending on that corporation doing well, is also making a good choice. The hard-working corporate executive who endures stress and sacrifice to ensure the health of the company’s employees, customers and shareholders deserves just as much praise as the guy who walks away from it to spend time with his kids.