It’s a striking question that more CEOs—or those aspiring to be—should be asked and even ask themselves. Leaders are often evaluated on their ability to scale an organization, manage complexity, inspire employees, and reassure investors. Those are critical competencies. But they don’t touch the deeper inquiry: If you didn’t lead, would anything meaningful be lost?
As Leslie Motter, CEO of Make-A-Wish, told me recently, becoming a chief executive isn’t a right or the inevitable next rung on the corporate ladder—it’s a responsibility. And increasingly, it demands moral clarity, resilience, and a sense of obligation that goes beyond ambition.
Chesky’s question reframes the CEO role the way founders often understand it: not as something you want to achieve, but something you feel compelled to shoulder.
The best CEOs often say they weren’t driven by entitlement to the top job, but by the understanding that there was work that was theirs to do. Instead of thinking they deserve the seat, they recognize that the seat deserves something only they can give. Without that conviction, the CEO role risks becoming empty performance.
This mindset matters all the more today. As CEO turnover accelerates and trust in institutions becomes tenuous, the CEO isn’t merely the strategist or the operator. They’re the carrier of the organization’s very reason for existing.
