It would take me a while to realize how rarefied the CEO’s world was. He was surrounded by people who were crushing it, and people who had chosen him. Kingmakers. People who did not like to admit defeat. The CEO’s community was the business community, and it would take care of him. He wasn’t in peril. Even if the company was a failure, he could easily fund-raise for a new one, or, in the worst-case scenario, become a VC. Unlike the rest of us, he could never backslide.