And what to learn about their journey
![Entrepreneur's Handbook](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fill:48:48/1*8sfeJBcpkpaPmv9Epi2Pjw.png)
3 years ago, my CEO sold his company for $30 million. Once everything was said and done, he was offered the role of CRO at the national level for a new department created specifically for his company. His total salary with incentives would have been $500K per year. I know this because the group that acquired us is publicly traded, and top management remuneration is published every year.
He accepted the position, but very quickly realized this was not made for him. After a few months, he quit. He now uses his time and money to invest in companies he believes in. Other than a beautiful lake house, he never bought anything fancy for himself. He’s passionate about the startup world and investing, and that’s what he’s best at.
In this article, I will go over what separates entrepreneurs from the rest of the corporate world through the example of my CEO. I hope you get some valuable lessons from his journey.
When my CEO’s company was acquired, he knew it was going to be the end of a chapter in his life. His company was going to be bought by an entity that represented everything he didn’t fit in: fixed processes, dozens of management layers, slow execution… The corporate, bureaucratic world.
The very reason (some) entrepreneurs succeed is that the framework they create allows for their crazy vision to come to life. Fortune 500 companies are slow, inefficient mammoths, stuck in the old process and ways of thinking. On the other hand, startups are agile, and lean, they move extremely fast and can change or replace their components very quickly: people, processes, software, hardware…
Back in 2019, my CEO’s company had never been so close to going bankrupt. Investors were not happy, employees were leaving the company every month, and it was not looking pretty. Eventually, a major shakeup happened. Parts of management were let go, processes were changed, and most importantly, a new strategy was implemented: the OKR framework.