I've spent quite a few years in the CEO chair. And in all that time, the thing that struck me most wasn't how hard the job was.
It was how unprepared most of us are when we get it.
Not unprepared in the obvious ways. Most people who reach the top job are capable, experienced and smart. They've led teams, managed P&Ls, impressed boards. They know their industry.
What they don't know, and what few people tell you, is what the job actually feels like from the inside. The weight of being the person where the buck genuinely stops. The specific loneliness that comes with the role and the infrastructure you need to manage it. How to read a PE investor and what they're really asking when they ask their questions. How to know when your instinct is right and when it's your ego talking. How to hold the line on the things that matter without losing the people you need.
These things aren't in any MBA programme. They're not in most leadership books either, because most leadership books are written from a comfortable distance, after the outcome is known and the difficult parts have been edited into lessons.
I wanted to write something different.
CEO Unfiltered is the book I wished someone had handed me the first time I sat in that chair.
An honest account, written from inside the room, of what the top job actually requires and what it costs.
It publishes soon. If any of this resonates, follow along. There's more to come.
And if you know someone who's just been handed the chair, or is about to be, then share this with them. They'll thank you for it.