Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky has a question he likes to ask founders about their companies: “Why do you deserve to exist?” It’s a provocation that’s not about market share, pitch decks, or investor appetite, but rather necessity. “The best generic answer I’ve ever received was, ‘if I don’t do it, no one else will,’” he recently told the tech news podcast TBPN.
It’s a striking question that more CEOs—or those aspiring to be—should be asked and even ask themselves. Leaders are often evaluated on their ability to scale an organization, manage complexity, inspire employees, and reassure investors. Those are critical competencies. But they don’t touch the deeper inquiry: If you didn’t lead, would anything meaningful be lost?
As Leslie Motter, CEO of Make-A-Wish, told me recently, becoming a chief executive isn’t a right or the inevitable next rung on the corporate ladder—it’s a responsibility. And increasingly, it demands moral clarity, resilience, and a sense of obligation that goes beyond ambition.
Chesky’s question reframes the CEO role the way founders often understand it: not as something you want to achieve, but something you feel compelled to shoulder.
It calls to mind a conversation I had earlier this year with Nike’s Elliott Hill, who told me he pursued the CEO role because he genuinely believed he was the one who could return the company to heightened growth. Similarly, Red Lobster CEO Damola Adamolekun recently told me he accepted the role believing he could help spark the greatest restaurant turnaround in recent memory. In both cases, the why wasn’t the title. It was the problem they felt personally responsible for solving.
The best CEOs often say they weren’t driven by entitlement to the top job, but by the understanding that there was work that was theirs to do. Instead of thinking they deserve the seat, they recognize that the seat deserves something only they can give. Without that conviction, the CEO role risks becoming empty performance.
This mindset matters all the more today. As CEO turnover accelerates and trust in institutions becomes tenuous, the CEO isn’t merely the strategist or the operator. They’re the carrier of the organization’s very reason for existing.
Editor’s note: The deadline to apply for the Fortune Next to Lead list is Monday, Dec.1, 2025. For more information or to submit a nomination, apply here.
Ruth Umoh
ruth.umoh@fortune.com
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