Should I call myself a CEO? It depends on each case, but, this is a question that some people may ask themselves before to do it.
Before the 90's, a Executive Director, was a relatively unknown person with no interest from the people or the markets, but with the dot com crazy fashion, it became a celebrity, and they started to call it CEO (Chief Executive Officer). CEOs started to earn high amounts of money and to identify their position as the most important, directly linked with the destiny of the company.
In the last 8 years, during the crisis, there has been a boom of startups, mainly in the tech area. Most of them with no more than 5-10 workers, and, all them have something in common, these companies have a CEO. But, is it right to be called CEO in a startup or a small company? Well, legally it is, morally, it depends on you. Anyway, don't feel embarrassed to call yourself a CEO, "it's a functional and legal term, and it's completely applicable in any corporate context, regardless of the size of the entity". For the ones who think that this is just applicable for big companies, David S. Rose gives us a very good example at Quora to understand it: Your approach would be the equivalent of saying that a person could not be described as a "writer" unless they had published a New York Times best seller, or a "mayor" unless their city had a population of at least 1,000,000 people.
Nalin Savara says: The kind of people who feel proud calling themselves CEO of a small company are the ones who believe on it, and whether they make it big or not, they will feel proud of what they do, and be willing to face the biggest challenges. And I agree, if you are the CEO of your startup, congratulations, because you are the one who has the responsibilities, the struggle and who carries out the business. You made it real.
To have some examples of some famous CEOs, Alexander Haislip said: Steve Jobs’ early business card read: “Vice President, New Product Development,” in part because he recognized he didn’t have the skills to run the company he wanted to build. At least not yet. Bill Gates went with the classic and somewhat understated “President.” But today’s tech titans have opted for something much more conspicuous. If you were one of the folks to get an early Mark Zuckerberg card, you may remember the supercilious line: “I’m CEO, Bitch.” Way to stay classy, Zuck.
So, the final decision lies on how proud you are of your company to call yourself a CEO. However, as it is just a business title, only your ability to direct and manage the company will decide the future.
