CEO's of the 21st Venture Century

There are hundreds of thousands of CEO's in the U.S. today and I would venture to say that the average age is 25. Not because major companies are being led by young rockstars, but because engineers are launching web-based products, iPhone applications and anointing themselves CEO's.

A fancy logo and a business card and they are out telling everyone that they are now the CEO of flipperdoodle.com... stupid name but how many of those have we heard of over the last 5 years.

All of a sudden they are a domain expert expecting c-level executives to take their calls, thought leaders to trust their opinions and consumers or companies to pay for their product.

With this title they feel entitled. But entitled to what? Building a product and building a company are two skill sets at the opposite end of the business spectrum.

Reality check, 99.9% of you will fail, be in debt and have very little marketable skills.

So now what? Realize your limitations. Hire a real CEO or let an advisor lead you... or, forget the business card and big dreams and make money. Demonstrate that you can build a business, not a product or cool website, a business that makes money and has customers.

You want the title, you have to earn it!