It is within everyone’s grasp to be a CEO.  There are secret opportunities hidden inside every failure.  Life is not really a solo sport – even if you’re the CEO.  Being a CEO is at least twice as hard as the next hardest position in a company.  It is really, really hard.  This is especially true with founder CEOs.
To become a proven transformational leader and creating a successful track record of building brands, businesses and value requires much more than just an opportunity.

Working with start-ups exposes one to holding positions of high responsibility and leadership earlier than most of one's fellow colleagues. Shaping and growing new businesses and building a profitable and large opportunity canvass requires thought leadership, entrepreneurial management style, creative strategy and execution. Most important survival and growth strategy is the ability to reimagine businesses and build innovative business models.

In delineating the four essential faces for a CEO, I am adapting leading mythologist Joseph Campbell's description of each of us as "a hero with a thousand faces," and Erica Fox’s article. A CEO needs to be like a

Dreamer – this is the visionary face led by intuition - suggestive of an inner CEO.
Thinker - this is the evaluation face led by reason - suggestive of an inner CFO.
Warrior – this is the relationship face led by willpower - suggestive of an inner COO.
Lover - this is the relationship face led by emotion - suggestive of an inner CHRO.

Everything ultimately becomes the CEO's problem, no matter where it starts. Reason why some CEOs crack under the pressure.

A CEO’s job consumes you.

It should not be looked at as a step-up but as a calling! 

(Piyush Sharma, a global tech, media and entrepreneurial leader, created the successful foray of Zee Entertainment in India and globally under the ‘Living’ brand. The views expressed here are of the writer’s and Indiantelevision.com may not subscribe to them.)