The only universal job description of a CEO is to make sure the company wins. You can do this as the founder even if you have a lot of flaws that would normally disqualify you as a CEO as long as you hire people that complement your own skills and let them do their jobs. That experienced CEO with a fancy MBA may not have the skill gaps you have, but he or she won’t understand the users as well, won’t have the same product instincts, and won’t care as much.
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The prime directive of great execution is “Never lose momentum”. But how do you do it?
The most important way is to make it your top priority. The company does what the CEO measures. It’s valuable to have a single metric that the company optimizes, and it’s worth time to figure out the right growth metric. If you care about growth, and you set the execution bar, the rest of the company will focus on it.
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Earlier I mentioned that the only universal job description of the CEO is to make sure the company wins. Although that’s true, I wanted to talk a little more specifically about how a CEO should spend his or her time.
A CEO has to 1) set the vision and strategy for the company, 2) evangelize the company to everyone, 3) hire and manage the team, especially in areas where you yourself have gaps 4) raise money, and 5) set the execution quality bar.
In addition to these, find whatever parts of the business you love the most, and stay engaged there.
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I think if you nail those parts, it probably doesn't matter how hard you work. Paul Buchheit observes that the world rewards results, not hard work.