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Comment on Ask YC: Better to be a Specialist or a Generalist as a CEO?

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I have been a Founder/CEO for the last fifteen years which in my experience is different from being the CEO of an established company. Founder/CEO for a startup is an entrepreneur whereas a CEO is a professional manager. But I assume entrepreneurship is what you have in mind and the following is what I wrote in my post.

http://www.lovemytool.com/blog/2007/10/vc-worst-enemy.html

"Anyone can be an entrepreneur but they must not have the mindset of a lawyer, an engineer or a doctor.

First of all, there are always more than two sides to an issue and often the right place is to be is in the middle - an option that a lawyer does not have. Also, there is not always an answer to every question; or if there is an answer, it might not be unique. So waiting for perfect data to arrive at a perfect solution is a luxury that I don’t have as an entrepreneur. If that bothers me, then I should go back to being an engineer. Finally, as an entrepreneur, I often have to shoot my patient (and I have)."

So my experience is that it has a lot less to do with skills and a lot more to do with mindset. In the end, it is about attracting people (a good Founder/CEO is one who is a "talent magnet" regardless of his/her professional training). Hope it helps.

Is that url nsfw? lol - I'm scared to click a link to "LoveMyTool.com"

Sorry about that. I get this a lot. The primary site (which also hosts my own personal blog) is my new startup which is an online marketplace for network TOOLs.

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