Do You Want To Be Rich, Or Do You Want To Be King?

You’re the founder of your business. Then, the big question: Do you want to be rich or do you want to be king? What? You want to be both? Well, it may surprise you to learn that very few founders have been able to do that, including the likes of Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Richard Branson.

As a venture ages, the founder becomes less likely to remain the CEO. Look just four years into the life of businesses, and almost 50 percent of founding CEOs have been replaced–and 75 percent of those are fired. Jack Dorsey, founding CEO of Twitter, said the experience of being asked to step down was like “being punched in the stomach.”

In this video, Professor Noam Wasserman of the Harvard Business School discusses this important decision every founder faces, and offers easy-to-follow charts and data to help founders make this crucial choice.  Choose rich, and give up control of your baby.  Chose king and keep control, but take the chances of slowing (or even killing) the growth of your business.

What’s right for you? What’s smart for you?


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