The everyday CEO spends their time attending conferences, strategizing with their board, and, within the case of the boss of semiconductor big ASML, batting off questions on the best 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 one of the strategically vital 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 chatting with 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, they usually need to be CEO, they usually ask me ‘how will we turn out to be CEO?’ And I attempt to clarify to them within the nicest doable approach that that is nearly an absurd query,” mentioned Fouquet.
“This isn’t the best query. The proper query is what am I going to do tomorrow that basically will get me excited, that basically brings the perfect out of me?
“As a result of in the event you go and try this each day, there could also be an opportunity you turn out to be CEO—most likely a much bigger likelihood 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 folks 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 folks select to check at college, arguing it’s extra vital to do one thing you take pleasure in than taking a career-focused method.
The ASML CEO says this method to profession improvement can assist section development into two components, targeted on gaining affect earlier than studying the best way to use it.
“I feel the primary a part of your profession is about proving your self, I actually imagine 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 definitely 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 position has remodeled throughout his time at ASML. At $230 billion, the group is price 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 throughout 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 position is barely prone to develop in significance.
Editor’s observe: A model of this text first appeared on Fortune.com on February 12, 2025.
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
