What does it truly mean to be a CEO of a company?

I've worked in business for a long time. CEO stands for Chief Executive Officer, and it isn't a career, it's a role. The CEO is the leader of the entire company and is ultimately responsible for everything that happens in the business. Everyone reports to the CEO. It's a rare opportunity to qualify to lead an entire company of people, and something that one has to work hard over many years in order to achieve. In theory you could just create a small business and call yourself the CEO. That's very different from being the CEO of a huge public company like General Electric or Citibank or Walmart or Google. A business with 5 employees will be very different from a business with 80,000 employees. And there are CEOs for every company in between.

Some things are for sure: no matter which company you lead, the hours will be greuling, the compensation will be high, and it will be incredibly competitive to get the job. It's an amazing experience if you can achieve it. You'll have to build experience leading individuals to overcome challenging obstacles, have the insight and conviction to move quickly when opportunities arise, defuse crises, and more. True leadership is an amazing skill to build!

As a preface I have been CEO of a number of companies both small and mid-sized. There is no single degree or path to being a CEO. In general though you will need work experience in a number of areas of the company you are in from fInance, operations, marketing, sales and at several levels within the corporation. When I was your age I gathered information on the Fortune 100 companies and looked at the CEO's to find both where they went to college and what there majors were and to my surprise there were from 65 different universities and 40 different majors. Though a majority did have a Master in Business Administration.

I hope this helps.

A CEO (Chief Executive Officer) is the one who drive the company in the right direction. His job is to be one step ahead from others and see the future. There are a lot of Company CEOs who have completed their education from top B-schools but also there are CEOs who haven't completed there college. To apply for a CEO position, one should have enough experience and proven track record.