I spend a great amount of time in classrooms around the United States, talking with children about their career choices, and how they can go about getting the career that they want. Usually when I am breaking the ice with the kids, I will ask them what they think the best job in the world is, or who they would like to be like when they grow up. More often than not, the kids will shout out the names of some incredibly successful people such as sports stars and politicians. By far the most common response to the ‘best job in the world’ however, is that of CEO. The world is filled with successful CEOs like Gary G Friedman for example, Chairman of Restoration Hardware and an inspiration man who did poorly at school, yet went on to do great things. These are the kind of people who I will use to inspire the kids.
The kids also like to know what are the spoils for success in terms of job benefits, and so if you were wondering, here are a few benefits which CEOs will have.
Salary
If you were to flick through the annual copy of the Forbes Rich list, you will see that the large majority of the world’s richest people, are CEOs of some of the world’s most powerful organizations. Chief execs are rewarded with very handsome salaries in order to recompense them for the highly stressful position that they carry out, as well as the fact that these are some of the smartest men and women in the world.
Influence
For some CEOs, the decisions that they make can have an impact on a global economy or on the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. Each day in their job role a CEO will make decisions that could positively or negatively impact these people and that is a hell of a lot of influence for one person to have. CEOs will also have great influence in the community thanks to their position an you will often see a CEO heading up boards of charity committees or governmental programs.
Power and Respect
There aren’t many job roles that you can find which will command instant respect, something that many us are looking for. A Chief Executive Officer however, they demand respect from the very outset as the head of the board of directors and much of this respect comes from the level of power which they have at their disposal. CEOs are responsible for shaping the direction in which an entire company moves, they have the power and the influence to make great changes to a company and it is important that they use their power in the right way, in order to maintain the respect.
Speaking to the kids in many schools, money, power and respect are three of the most commonly sought after traits to have in a job, and a CEO ticks all of those boxes.