Meta’s co-founder says being a CEO for 13 years was exhausting
Dustin Muskovitz is co-founder and president of Asana.
Stefanie Keenan | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images
Meta co-founder Dustin Moskovitz opened up about the pains of leadership and admitted that being CEO for 13 years was “exhausting.”
One of the original founders of Meta (formerly Facebook), Moskovitz founded the social platform in 2004 with Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Chris Hughes and Andrew McCollum.
After leaving Facebook in 2008, he retained a stake of just over 8%, making him a billionaire with a net worth of $12 billionAccording to the latest data from Forbes. That same year, he became co-founder and CEO of business management software platform Asana.
Moskovitz announced he was stepping down as Asana’s CEO earlier this year, and while he moves into the chairman role, he retains 53% of the company’s outstanding shares between Class A and Class B holdings.
The billionaire recently talked about what it’s like to be the CEO of Asana and also what it’s like to have an introverted personality. Stratechery podcast by Ben ThompsonIt was published on Monday.
“I don’t like managing teams, and that wasn’t my intention when we started Asana,” Moskovitz said during the episode.
“Again, I was thinking about becoming more independent or taking over the engineering department. Then one thing led to another and I was CEO for 13 years and found it quite exhausting.”
He added: “I’m an introvert, I had to put on that face every day, and in the beginning I was like, ‘Oh, it’s going to be easier, the company is going to be more mature,’ and then the world just kept getting more chaotic – Trump’s first presidency, the pandemic and all the race stuff made it a lot less work to build a company, being a CEO means a lot more reacting to problems and doing that kind of thing.”
Many famous leaders are introverts
Various notable business leaders, from Meta’s Zuckerberg to Microsoft’s co-founder, have described themselves as introverts. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway.
Susan Cain, author of “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking,” said introverts are often overlooked for leadership positions and do better in quieter, less stimulating environments.
He said introverts have some hidden traits that can make them well-suited for leadership positions, such as taking fewer risks, being more creative and being better at problem solving.
Introverted leaders can be “slow” and “cautious” when making decisions, which helps them avoid impulsive or reckless moves, Cain said.
They also tend to seek out solitude more, which is “a real catalyst for creativity,” according to Cain.
“This two-layered structure of our view of personality results in a tremendous waste of talent, energy and happiness,” Cain said. “We need to take more of a yin and yang balance approach between the two styles.”
