This content was created by Eric Siu. This content was uploaded by Eric Siu. This is a YouTube video titled "What's the real cost of being a CEO?" (created 2026-01-13). The excerpt is a short dialogue between two speakers (labeled SPEAKER A and SPEAKER B) discussing the burdens and trade-offs of CEO/leadership roles—contrasting people problems versus other responsibilities, how executives surface or resolve issues, and the idea that even highly successful CEOs (e.g., Jensen, Tim Cook, Satya Nadella, Sundar) keep working because doing great work demands more effort.
You're totally right, but would you agree that my situation is much better than someone who's a CEO?
Yes, yes, because the main shit that you have to deal with is people problems, and you don't deal with people problems.
Correct, I don't have to. I have to deal with executives, but we handpick really good executives, so I don't really have too many problems. Now, my CEO and executive team really does deal with a lot of crappy problems each and every single day, but here's the kicker: they usually tell me about them after they're solved. It's all good. I'm like, we lose revenue? They're like, no, we actually found an opportunity, we upsold Oh, we made some more money here and we're above budget here. I'm like, okay, do I need to worry about anything? Nope, all good.
No, that's the dangerous question. It's the price of doing great work is actually more work. And if you think about it, people can hate on the most successful people in the world or whatever, but why are they all working right now? Jensen doesn't need to work right now, has the most valuable company in the world. Tim Cook doesn't need to work. You know, Satya Nadella doesn't need to work. Sundar doesn't need to work. But the price of doing great work is more work. We're not comparing ourselves to them. I'm just saying that as we continue to grow in our careers, there's always going to be more work to do.
