5 Things I wish I had told me before I became CEO

From the outside, becoming a CEO can look like reaching the top of the mountain – a final, winning chapter after a long climb. But here’s the real story: this is not the end. This is a new beginning. Someone is full of curve balls, overnight trouble sessions and more lessons than any business school can ever enter into a curriculum.

As the CEO of the world’s largest property restoration company, Belphore, I have the incredible privilege (and, honest, intense pressure) to help me extend my team to more than 13,000 people worldwide. This trip has taught me a lot – about leadership, about what really means lifting the weight of people and its word “CEO”.

So, if you are steping in the leadership (or dreaming about your day), then there are five things that I wish someone had pulled me aside and told me soon:

Related: 4 business lessons that I have learned as CEO

1. Stress never lets be – and this is no bad thing

When your choice affects others, the pressure does not take a day’s leave. What surprised me the most? How personal it is. Being a leader is not just about strategy. It’s about the heart. It’s about deep care. Sometimes very deep. DDI is reported One of the six leaders Feeling burned in 2025. A study from dewatet It has been found that 41 % of executives face more stress, and 36 % are completely terminated.

The fact is: pressure comes with work. And once I stopped trying to get it, I learned to take it as an honor. This pressure creates flexibility. It builds you. It reminds you that your work makes a difference. If you are looking for relief, leadership may not be your way. But if you are looking for meaning? Pressure can only be your compass.

2. Travel is more important than destination

When I was starting, I closed my eyes on the next big goal: promotion, win, title. I was so focused on climbing the ladder that I missed what was happening on the ladder.

Leadership is not the end line. It is a road trip, which is completed with pit stops, natural routes and occasionally flat tires. I know that the best leaders do not have the passion to reach. They are dial on the ride. One of the reasons is that the windshield is wider than the rareview mirror. Certainly, we look back, but we move forward. Every challenge, every small win, gives the form of every tough lesson that we become.

Therefore, if you are feeling behind or uncertain, remember: It’s been done. Keep growing. Keep going. Become the CEO of your life – Chair Leaders, passionate and hopeful, even in difficult days, see the ability.

Related: 3 reasons why ‘travel reward’

3. By doing, not just by deciding

I will never forget my time Secret boss. Working from shoulder with our team to shoulder-cleaning, lifting, listening to the way to think about leadership. It was not just an eye opening. It was a heartbreaking.

In Belphore, we do not print titles on our business cards. Why? Because when someone needs help, it doesn’t matter what your title is. This makes a difference what you do. The real leadership is not about orders to barking from a corner office. It is about to show. Roll your sleeves. Listen to the more you talk (one of the reasons that we have two ears and one mouth) and are moving for example.

Harvard Business Review Study Back to it: Leaders who meet words with words increase confidence. And I will add it – they also make a family. Everyone in your team has a story. A struggle a spark when you guide with confidence, compassion and listening, you also make the way to guide others.

4. Trust is your most powerful toll

The CEO’s life can be great. So, here’s the lifeline: you don’t need to be isolated.

Some of my best decisions started with someone else’s idea. It is the power of trust. When you believe and show it, you unlock the extraordinary thing. Assigning is not leaving control. This belief is sharing. By telling people, “I see what you can do. Go for it.”

A culture based on trust creates the effect of a wave: more engagement, more ownership, more magic. When your team feels trusted, they get up – not only on this occasion, but ahead of it. A person can make a difference. Sometimes, that person is the one you have empowered.

Related: Strong leaders use these 4 strategies to build trust in their workplace

5. Weakness is not weakness – it’s strength

Somewhere along the line, we raised the idea that strong leaders are tough, silent, irrelevant. I say this with my heart: Let him go. The most powerful moments of my career came when I left the walls down. When I sought help. When I was crying. When I allow people to see real Sheldon – flaws, fear and everyone.

We spend most of our lives at work. If we can’t be there, where can we do? Weakness does not soften you. It makes you human. And humanity is the heartbeat of leadership.

When your team sees you are not perfect – but you deeply care, try hard and show anyway, they feel safe to do so. Trust begins at this place. In this place innovation is created. In the same place, everyone’s little hero comes out.

If I live in a time machine and talk to my little ones, for the first time, step by step in this CEO set, I will say: “The title does not make you a leader. You do actions. You are going to mess up. You will not be overwhelmed by your passion.”

Because the leadership is not about all the answers. This is about walking with your team when you guide, guide everyone in this family and truly care for which you now have the honor of being a part of it. Together