What Makes A Successful Founder Into an Effective CEO?

One of the most frequent questions that aspiring founders ask me is, “What should I do to have a successful business in my early days?”

While there are many components to building a startup successfully, from developing a great product, marketing it and finding users for it, converting those users into customers and employees, creating a great company culture that people are proud of, to scaling the business, there is one particular component that I believe is the foundation of all the other pieces.

The foundation of successful entrepreneurs is strong leadership skills to manage effectively and grow quickly at scale. All the first-time CEOs, founders and co-founders become successful when they have the right talent to lead the team and venture capital.

I believe one key trumps all others: great founders must make leadership decisions effectively in their early days.

Many organizations die because their CEO can’t make difficult decisions.

They lack decisiveness for three main reasons:

Either they don’t have enough information to make a decision
They don’t have the correct information available when making the decision
They cannot bring themselves to believe that their original plan is flawed

With new perspectives and the following traits, a leader can make a significant difference in their organization within a limited time, proving their leadership.

Courage – Make the Decision and Live With It
Curiosity – Conduct Fact-based Experiments
Commitment – Be Persistent And Decisive
Passion – Be Excited About the Company’s Product and Vision
Authenticity – Be True To Yourself, Your Company and its Culture
Reformist – Know When to Make A Change and Don’t be Afraid of Doing Things Differently
Invincible – Be Willing to Fail and Get Back up Again
Strategic – Be Able to See the Big Picture and Create a Clear Vision for the Future
Optimistic – Be Able to Look at the Bright Side of a Negative Situation and Stay Focused on the Future
Problem Solver – Be Able to Find Solution for the Company’s and Employees’ Needs
Humble – Be Willing to Work Alongside Your Team and Not Above Them
Reflective – Prepare to Pivot and be Willing to Change Direction
Strategic – Be Able to Turn Your Company Into a Brand People Can Trust and Believe In
Flexible – Be Willing to Take on Roles and Duties Other Than Those Related to Being CEO
Creative – Stay Ahead of Trends and Develop New Ways to Improve Your Business
Confident – Be Able to Handle Criticism and Adversity With a Level Head
Understand that Your Role is Dynamic as a Founder CEO

Courage - Make the Decision and Live With It

Most successful people will tell you that courage is a leader’s essential quality. Without courage, a leader cannot make difficult decisions and live with them. If you cannot build a strong business culture by hiring the right people and instilling a sense of mission and urgency in them.

There’s no way around it: You have to be willing to take risks to become a successful business leader. If you like to play it safe, you may want to reconsider whether or not this is the career path that’s right for you.

Curiosity - Conduct Fact-based Experiments

Successful people are naturally curious and passionate about their products, businesses, and their employees. They believe that making decisions based on their own opinions is not as effective as basing those decisions on data. Data-driven decision-making is key to examining preconceived notions about your business and product. The more data you look at when making decisions, the better your choices as a founder.

So how do you develop a data-driven approach to decision-making? It starts with conducting experiments with no preconceived notions about the results. If you don’t have any reason to believe that something might happen, it’s impossible to be disappointed if it doesn’t.

If you ask for an outside opinion on your product or business before developing it, then you’re experimenting. If you roll out a product to some users and observe their behavior, that’s also an experiment.

If you change your pricing, sign up different distribution partners or modify any element of your business that can be measured and observed through your cash flow, then you’re experimenting. Most founders don’t like to conduct experiments like this because they are afraid of the data.

The simple act of admitting that you don’t know everything is a great way to challenge yourself and improve as a decision-maker. The information you receive from conducting these experiments will be invaluable in making the choices that drive your business forward.

Commitment - Be Persistent And Decisive

Successful leaders are persistent in their decision-making and decisive when executing on them.

By working with these faculty members and publishing their scientific papers on Scribd, Adler demonstrated that his vision for Scribd was valid. He believed that by giving users access to the documents they would be interested in, he could build a successful business. It took two years of persistence, but eventually, he succeeded.

Now, as reported on TechCrunch, Scribd generates around 15 million unique visitors every month and has a catalog of more than 400,000 eBooks and academic papers across various domains.

Passion - Be Excited About the Company's Product and Vision

Successful founders are passionate about their work. They’re excited to come in to the office every day and are eager to see how they can help with the growth of their startup. It doesn’t matter if you’re running a billion-dollar corporation or an early-stage startup. Passion is essential if you want to be successful.

For example, Jeff Bezos implemented the “two-pizza rule” at Amazon — no team should be so large that it requires more than two pizzas to feed everyone. This is a small commitment he made, but still a powerful one. He has used this approach with many decisions over the years, and it has helped create a culture of efficiency and execution at Amazon.

As the leader of your company, you’re responsible for generating interest about your product and reminding your team why they have jobs at all. It would be best to stay informed about what is going on in your industry so you can talk to your team about new trends and developments.

This helps create a leadership team with the right mindset, and they realize that it is essential to keep track of everything to get customers to buy in.

Authenticity - Be True To Yourself, Your Company and its Culture

What differentiates successful founders from most entrepreneurs is that they are genuine human beings who lead authentic lives both on and off the job.

Great leaders are true to themselves, their businesses, and their employees. They make tough decisions and don’t hesitate to communicate bad news — even when they know it will be unpopular for their business.

Authenticity is about being yourself and staying true to who you are, no matter your position or title.

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were authentic because they didn’t try to emulate someone else’s vision for their companies. They built their companies from the ground up based on their standards and created a culture that reflected their values.

Reformist - Know When to Make A Change and Don't be Afraid of Doing Things Differently

If your organization fails, it might be time to make a few changes. As CEO, you will need to have the confidence to know when it’s time for a new strategy or a new direction.

If you don’t already know how to determine what needs to be improved, you need to surround yourself with people who can help make those decisions and recognize your strengths as well.

Invincible - Be Willing to Fail and Get Back up Again

Failing is part of the journey to success as a CEO. Being willing to fail, struggle and get back up again shows resilience, the right mindset, courage and character. People who are unwilling to accept failure aren’t cut out to be the best founders.

For example, Mark Zuckerberg’s first company wasn’t a success. He sold it to his competitor for a measly $200 million and had to deal with critics who did not understand him or his vision. However, he didn’t quit or move on from the failure.

He took some time off and focused on another project called “The Facebook,” which eventually became what we know of as Facebook today, with investments in the millions.

Think about the things you have done in your life where it looked as though everything was going wrong. How did you react to those situations? Did you give up or keep fighting until you either succeeded or learned something from it? What can you learn from those failures that will help propel your startup forward so that you can achieve success?

Strategic - Be Able to See the Big Picture and Create a Clear Vision for the Future

Both strategy and vision are core components of being a founder for a reason. Your strategic vision will guide you through difficult times, but you need to create that vision before your company’s future becomes clear.

Board members are more likely to trust an ambitious founder who has a strong background in strategy and the ability to make bold decisions rather than someone willing to take on too much responsibility without knowing how to execute their vision.

Optimistic - Be Able to Look at the Bright Side of a Negative Situation and Stay Focused on the Future

Even CEOs can’t control everything, so there will be times when things don’t go according to plan. As a founder, you will need to stay positive and focus on the big picture when nothing is going right.

If a client isn’t happy with your product or another company takes business away from yours, a CEO’s ability to recognize what went wrong and how they can improve in the future can make all the difference.

Problem Solver - Be Able to Find Solution for the Company's and Employees' Needs

Problem-solving is a vital skill for any founder because it can often be challenging to find the best solution in the time that you have available.

It applies not only to significant problems tied to your company’s vision but also to smaller issues that affect productivity.

Humble - Be Willing to Work Alongside Your Team and Not Above Them

When playing a leadership role in your company, it’s important to remember that you’re not above the rest of your team members. If you’re going to be a successful founder, you will need to show that you are willing to roll up your sleeves and work alongside every team member in your office.

You’ll prove to your employees that you’re willing to do whatever is necessary to improve the company by taking on a job like emailing clients or fixing broken copiers.

Reflective - Prepare to Pivot and be Willing to Change Direction

No plan ever unfolds perfectly, so adjusting your strategy as you see fit is essential for any founder. At the same time, it’s necessary to go into each day with a clear idea of what you want to accomplish.

It’s also good to take time out of the day to reflect on what you have done and how it fits into your overall vision for the company. Taking some time to relax will help you process new ideas so that you can bring them back to the office with you once things have settled down.

Strategic - Be Able to Turn Your Company Into a Brand People Can Trust and Believe In

Building a brand is one of the most important things when you play the CEO role, so it’s crucial to find out what your target market wants or needs and help them get it.

Organizations like Apple have become household names because they create products that people want. By identifying what your target market truly values in a product or service, you can build a future for your business that people can believe in.

As the CEO of your company, you will often have to work and focus outside of your comfort zone to get things done. Asking for help as a founder isn’t always easy, but it can be essential to your company’s success.

By taking on some of the roles delegated to others, you can build a stronger team dynamic and become a more well-rounded and effective leader of your company.

Creative - Stay Ahead of Trends and Develop New Ways to Improve Your Business

One of the most important skills leaders need is creativity because a CEO needs to have a growth mindset to think of new and creative ideas to improve their business and work on the customers’ lifecycle to retain them.

Market research can give you an idea about what changes can be implemented, but it’s up to you as the CEO to turn those recommendations into reality. For example, if your company is about digital media, are there any new technologies out there that you could start using to give your company a competitive edge?

Confident - Be Able to Handle Criticism and Adversity With a Level Head

Leaders need the confidence to lead their teams, but it can’t come at the expense of optimism. Suppose you want to become a successful CEO. In that case, you will have to face times when your team is unhappy with your decisions, your investors or other stakeholders may no longer show interest in investing and the executives might not support your choices.

You will have to come up with a solution that makes everyone happy. You need to mentally prepare yourself for all the consequences you have to face in the corporate world.

At the same time, if your customers aren’t pleased with what you’re doing and they express their concerns to you, it’s essential not to take those criticisms personally and learn from them to find a way to improve in the future for your personal growth, as well as the growth of you team members.

Understand that Your Role is Dynamic as a Founder CEO

If you are a CEO, then it’s important to understand that your role is dynamic and challenges will arise. There may be times when you need to take on the responsibilities of other roles in order to get things done or meet customer expectations.

If all else fails, reflect back on what went well and what could have been better so that you can come up with new ideas for improvement tomorrow.

The key as a leader is not just understanding how people think, but also being able to adapt those findings into an effective marketing strategy tailored specifically towards your customers’ needs.