The everyday CEO spends their time attending conferences, strategizing with their board, and, within the case of the boss of semiconductor large ASML, batting off questions on the way to get to the place he’s.
It’s an comprehensible question. As CEO of the Fortune 500 Europe lithography group, Christophe Fouquet is accountable for some of the strategically essential corporations on the planet. His €3.5 million ($3.6 million) pay packet final 12 months, and extra in collected inventory choices, doesn’t mood the envy both.
However talking to Norges Financial institution Funding Administration CEO Nicolai Tangen on his In Good Firm podcast, Fouquet indicated the query stands out as a constant shortcoming amongst formidable children.
“I see too many younger individuals who come to see me, and so they wish to be CEO, and so they ask me ‘how will we change into CEO?’ And I attempt to clarify to them within the nicest attainable means that that is nearly an absurd query,” mentioned Fouquet.
“This isn’t the appropriate query. The best query is what am I going to do tomorrow that basically will get me excited, that basically brings the very best out of me?
“As a result of if you happen to go and do this daily, there could also be an opportunity you change into CEO—likely a much bigger probability that you do not—however you’ll equally find yourself doing one thing that brings you pleasure, vitality, and most significantly brings that to the individuals round you.”
Fouquet, who says he by no means harbored ambitions for the C-Suite in his early years, says this could prolong to the themes younger individuals select to check at college, arguing it’s extra essential to do one thing you get pleasure from than taking a career-focused method.
The ASML CEO says this method to profession improvement may also help phase development into two components, targeted on gaining affect earlier than studying the way to use it.
“I feel the primary a part of your profession is about proving your self, I actually consider that,” mentioned Fouquet, including he realized this a part of his life had concluded when he took cost of a product unit at ASML greater than a decade in the past.
“And then you definately look ahead, you say, okay, what’s subsequent… what can I do to assist and the place is the place the place I can do one thing that issues?”
Fouquet’s function has remodeled throughout his time at ASML. At $230 billion, the group is value orders of magnitude greater than when he joined the corporate in 2008.
Shares within the group ballooned following the COVID-19 pandemic, first throughout a broad improve in demand for tech shares and once more through the AI growth.
The corporate provides its lithography machines to the world’s largest corporations, together with Nvidia, which permits the manufacturing of superior semiconductors utilized in AI functions.
As a key a part of the worldwide provide chain, Foquest’s function is just prone to develop in significance.
Editor’s be aware: A model of this text first appeared on Fortune.com on February 12, 2025.
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com