You dont want to become CEO?

About 20 years ago in our MBA class, the organization behaviour professor asked us "How many of you want to be CEOs". A plethora of hands went up. I think only a few hands did not go up. One of them was mine. And the professor asked me, why did you not raise your hand?

I said, I dont know if CEO is what I want to become. 

And 20 years later, I am actually sure that there are surely many other possible goals and roles than become CEO. 

PS:You can argue that I was not good enough. But I consciously took a different path to measure my success differently.

PPS: Many from the batch did go on to become Head of departments, functions, geographies. A couple did rise up to be CEO. But most CEOs were the ones who started off on their own. So, a question worth asking MBA students is, How many of you will take the entrepreneurship route - and notice that is far more than becoming CEO? 

Of course if at that time we were asked that question only 2-3 hands would have gone up knowing my classmates. And one of them started off right after college. I would not have raised my hand even then to be sure. Entrepreneurship was way away from what I had in mind, until I serendipitously stepped into it.