11 CEO Lessons I Learned Building E2M in 11 Years

11 years ago, I started E2M with $1250 capital and a small 500 sq. ft. office.

Today, E2M is still bootstrapped, privately owned, profitable, and a renowned brand. It's a community of 250+ happy clients and 180+ happy team members, with offices in India and the US.

As I write this post, I am absolutely not involved in day-to-day operations, and our company pretty much runs on its own. We are growing at 95% in this autonomous mode without my involvement. But it didn’t happen overnight. It took a very very long time to reach this point. It's a journey marked with many different attempts, tons of mistakes, loss of lots of $$, and plenty of lessons learned the hard way.

Every time I made a mistake, I learned something out of it. I tried not to repeat the same mistake twice. But more than that, I realized I had to share this ordeal with others so they do not have to go through the same. People who are smart always learn from others’ mistakes and act accordingly. Mistakes are inevitable, but usually, I’ve observed that smart people do not repeat the same mistakes, and that’s what makes them stand out.

Throughout my career, I've lived by Zig Ziglar's simple philosophy –?“You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.”

Here are 11 CEO lessons I have learned the hard way. This is a must-read for those who are CEOs, transitioning into this role, or aspire to be one.

1. Get Your Hands Dirty is an Unfair Advantage

After starting E2M, for the first couple of years, I handled Marketing, Sales, Customer Service, Project Execution, Project Management, Team Management, HR and recruitment, and Finance, virtually everything. Some people may view this as a disadvantage. However, that's not how I saw it, and I still don't.

My hands-on experience in all the different areas of running a business helped me build the right team and delegate each function to the right person. It's the best way to scale the business.

When you don’t have hands-on experience, you are making someone else a driving force of your company. You always want to make sure that during the initial years of building a company, you want to become a driving force. This helps you cultivate the same value systems, business goals, and ethics you started with.

Remember, delegation is an art, and when you have lived a role (or responsibility), it is easy to delegate as you know how exactly you want to get done. Now, I can relate to the team quickly and efficiently thanks to the hands-on experience. I can be realistic when our team faces challenges. When you can relate to challenges, you can solve them in the most thoughtful way by putting yourself in your team’s shoes.

Recently, I was listening to a conversation between Elon Musk and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Benjamin Netanyahu mentioned that his father was the most influential person in his life, and he asked a question to his father before he was running for president of Israel. “What should I really have to become the president of Israel?"

And his father said, "Education. If you’re educated about every aspect of our country and economy, you can run the country with your vision and mind. Otherwise, people working for you will run the country if they are more educated than you.” It makes so much sense.

The bottom line is - as a CEO, you need to be more educated about every function of your business than the person involved in that role. It's the only way to ensure the organization runs according to your vision and goals. As you may already know, this is the most critical aspect of scaling your business successfully in the right direction.

2. Being CEO Is a Dual Personality

CEOs are decision-making machines. Every day, you have to make so many decisions. Some will have long-term impacts, while others may have short-term consequences. The result of every decision you make will either make your business or break your business.

It’s a make-it-or-break-it life for a CEO.

But you’re making every single decision for the company, not you. You really have to understand that you’re a human with emotions, and a business doesn’t have those. So, when making a decision, you will have to learn to be empathetic without bringing your emotions into the decision-making process.

?I really liked Naval’s mindset, which I learned later in my career – “Choose the non-emotional response to any given situation and see how much easier your life becomes.”

If I put it in a business context, choose the non-emotional response to any given business situation and see how much easier your life becomes as a CEO.

Businesses do not have emotions. Moreover, your business can’t run and grow if you make decisions based on emotions.

I have developed a simple mindset.

"When it comes to people, I think from the heart. But when it comes to numbers, I think from the mind."

When you choose a non-emotional response, you’ll always act in your company’s best interest.

3. CEO's job is to Find an Order in a Chaos

If I have to describe a CEO’s job in one line, it would be – Finding an order in chaos.

Like it or not, running a business is chaos. And your job is to remain unaffected by the chaos and find an order in it. It’s the only way to get things done the way you like.

?Unfortunately, most CEOs struggle in this regard. They find it challenging to navigate the chaos and set priorities. Setting up priorities is a particularly tough nut to crack. When I began my journey as a CEO, I had so many things to do that I often ended up doing nothing.

But with time, I realized that chaos was in my mind, not my organization. I just needed to clear my mind. With crystal-clear thinking, I was able to make the right decisions at the right time. That’s when it hit me that you really need to be aware of your business goals, both short-term and long-term. Once you understand that clearly, your actions will get aligned accordingly, and you will find order in the chaos.

That said, there is no universal formula for this. Every CEO will have different business goals. Naturally, your chaos and the order within will also be different. But remember to act on your decisions. Taking action is how you can navigate the chaos and find order.

4. Don’t Let Being CEO Dominate Your Personality

I don’t like titles. So, instead of CEO, I prefer calling myself a Wizard at E2M. But whether you call yourself CEO or something else, you drive the decisions and make things happen the way you want. You are working even when you are not in the office. This dedication is admirable.

But there’s a catch - you eventually become a dominant personality.

And the problem begins when you carry that dominating personality everywhere with you. You can’t be a CEO 24/7. You are an individual with a family and friends. You are not a CEO even when you interact with people in your company outside of work. You would want to drop your dominating CEO personality when you’re not working.

Do that, and you will see that you can engage people outside of your work without friction. That said, dropping and picking up your CEO personality is an art. It takes marathon efforts to train your mind when to drop and when to pick it up.

5. Keep Your Eyes, Ears, and Mind Open as a CEO

This advice may seem too obvious. But it often gets ignored, believe me!

As a CEO, your job is to think outside the box. That begins with keeping your eyes, ears, and mind open. And you must do this virtually 24/7. So, be observant whether you are in the office or on a road trip. Remember, creativity knows no boundaries. You cannot schedule creativity or ideas. A brilliant idea could strike while boiling eggs or working in your cabin.

Besides, our mind tends to work at its best when you set it free. Try to force it, and you won’t see a creative solution for days or weeks. I have come up with the best ideas or creative solutions while traveling or doing something outside of work.

6. Lion Framework & Productivity

CEOs are humans too!?

So, like most of us, there will be days when you may not feel like doing anything. Also, there will be days when you are super-charged to accomplish a lot more.?

That’s perfectly normal.?

However, I went through a tough time. When I felt like doing nothing, I used to feel guilty at the end of the day. It was tough to see myself doing nothing while my team toiled away. This feeling lasted a while.?

But then I decided to dig deeper into this problem. I learned about an interesting framework by Naval called Lion Framework – “Sprint when inspired. Rest. Repeat.”?

Oh, and I loved the tweet by Sahil Bloom – “Modern work culture is a remnant of the Industrial Age. It encourages long periods of steady, monotonous work unsuited for the Information Age. To do truly great, creative work, you have to be a lion.”?I stumbled on it during my research.?

After learning about the Lion Framework, I no longer feel guilty. I know how we human beings function. We simply can not work Monday-Friday during business hours specifically. Inspiration isn’t going to strike during office hours.?

Since this realization, I transformed my work mindset. Now, I accomplish most when I am inspired. I don’t force myself into making a creative decision just because I have to. There are days when I do nothing, and there are days when I work a lot. Usually, there are one or two days a week when I work more than 12 hours and finish a week's work.

7. CEO’s Job Includes Doing Boring Things?

Yes, that’s true!

I was listening to an interview with Elon Musk one day, where he mentioned that as a CEO, you have to do a lot of things that seem boring. You don’t enjoy doing them but must do them to run your company. You can’t outsource either.?

When I heard this, I felt like I was not just alone.?:)

As a CEO, you will have to do boring things. It is a part of your job whether you hate or love it.?

There’s a great tweet by Shane Parrish -?Doing boring things without getting bored is a competitive advantage.

8. Calendar is a Creativity Killer

I realized this when I started observing my mind after my calendar started getting busy. As a CEO, you need to be functional all the time. You need to be creative too!

But when your calendar is full, it occupies your mind. Thinking about your calendar 24/7 means your mind has no room left for creative thinking. There goes your creative problem-solving.

Yes, I know how necessary a calendar is for a CEO. But don’t let it turn into a creativity killer. To make that happen, I started blocking some days and times. This time is reserved, let’s say, for a creative break. No meetings, interviews, or events get planned on these off days.

As a CEO, I highly recommend you block some day(s) in a week when you don’t have anything to do. Use this time to loosen up, refresh, and recharge your mind. And bring your creative force out. But at the same time, follow the Lion Framework as well because you want to be inspired.

9. Hire People without a Title and then give a title to them

?Believe it or not, hiring is one of the most important aspects of a CEO’s job. You will need to hire great people if you want to scale your business quickly and efficiently. After hiring hundreds of people, I realized that when hiring for a position, you really want to look for people who are working without a title.

In my experience, these people deserve a suitable title rather than those already holding one. You really want to look for people taking on responsibilities that were not assigned to them officially. It is a clear sign that they are not married to their title/position. They are OPEN for any new responsibility. They can grow into a role you provide or create for them.

Naturally, they will go above and beyond. When you give a title to them, you’re building a great team ready for new challenges and opportunities - always. That will prove quite helpful as your company grows.

10. Freeing up the time and boredom

As a CEO, you should be obsessed with freeing up your time.?

For me, Naval’s Framework worked the best.?

He says – “When you want to free up your time, look for the person who loves to do what you hate to do.”?

Once you identify such a person, you would want to pass on your responsibilities to free up your time. It allows you to focus on something different. As a CEO, you would want your leadership team to follow the same framework. Help them free up their time and keep taking on new responsibilities.

When you free up your time, you feel bored because your current responsibilities have been passed on to your team, and you have nothing to do. Yes, freedom will lead to Boredom. But boredom will lead to Creativity. And Creativity will lead to Productivity.?

So, getting freedom doesn’t mean you don’t have to do anything. Rather, it’s when you start becoming more creative and productive than ever before. As you can see, boredom is not bad. Embrace it and turn it into a creative process.

11. Culture and hiring can’t be outsourced

As a CEO, you cannot outsource your culture to the HR team. Be involved in chalking out the most crucial policies and business goals. They can’t be generic because they become your brand's USP when your company starts getting traction.

As a CEO, you need to understand that policies and rules are not PERFECT. Real-life problems are much more complicated, and policies cannot outline how to deal with them. Train your HR team to hire people who can uplift your company culture, not the other way around.

I am not saying you should only look for cultural fit. Diversity is important but should not come at the cost of your culture. It should strengthen your community spirit. Remember, as your company grows and new people come in, some of them may act irresponsibly, forcing you to create stricter policies. But this is a WRONG move.

Instead, identify responsible individuals, showcase their attitude and approach, and speak about it openly with the rest of your employees. Never create policies that make your employees feel like they are working in a controlled environment. Promote a culture of freedom and openness, not control. It leads to creative and independent thinking.

Wrap Up

Well, that’s what I have learned in my 11-year journey as a CEO. Like I said before, this journey was hardly a joyride. I stumbled and made mistakes. But I got back up and corrected my mistakes, and here we are today. E2M is a brand 250+ clients admire and love. They have helped me and E2M grow. Nothing makes me happier than sharing this with you, CEOs, would-be CEOs, and those who aspire to lead their organization one day.

But learning is a never-ending process. So, I will be back with more knowledge and experience. I am looking forward to sharing more lessons in the coming 12th year. Meanwhile, look around, check out E2M’s culture, and see what makes us tick. We are always looking for the right fit to partner with :)