The most common question I receive as CEO* is "how big do you want Aspenware to be?".
The second most common question is "what is your exit strategy?"
My answer to both is the same: "I don't care."
Quite simply, I desire to work alongside talented people who serve others, love what they do and have a passion for doing it well.
A focus on getting big or an exit inhibits this.
It's not about "the next" - the next deal, the next project, the next million in revenue.
"the next" never fulfills its promise. A destination does not temporally exist.
However, the vector through "now" is important and interesting.
Not to protect or hold onto - that's something different.
But to embrace, respect and appreciate the passing-through while being flexible to change course.
It's in our poverty that we remain full.
*Ironically I lost my ambition to become a CEO on a summer night in 1998 in the Czech Republic. God ripped my aspiration and supplanted it with something else. I sometimes forget. But mostly its true. It's a fun role - but only for a time.
Credits: the Christ of Matthew 6. Seneca's 'The Shortness of Life'. They are worth the read.