.Hello as well as welcome to Modern CEO! I'm Stephanie Mehta, CEO as well as chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Every week this bulletin looks into inclusive techniques to leadership reasoned chats along with execs and also business owners, and coming from the pages of Inc. and Swift Firm. If you got this email list from a friend, you can join to obtain it on your own every Monday morning.Being a chief executive officer these days is difficult: Pressures feature fulfilling investors, dealing with rising costs as well as solving ongoing supply-chain problems, and generating excellent place of work. However, for a lot of executives, being actually an ex-CEO shows its very own set of problems. Some struggle to manage the loss of the benefits and condition that possess the job, while others really feel required to observe the well-trodden path to personal equity or business panels." Yearly, lots of managers retire from lengthy and also productive corporate careers. However handful of are gotten ready for the experience they are about to plunge into," previous Outpost Communications CEO Maggie Wilderotter stated earlier this year in a Harvard Service Assessment essay, penciled along with occupation train Rick Johnson and also headhunter Dennis Carey.Life beyond MicrosoftOne past corporate chieftain that appears to have located his ground is actually past Microsoft chief executive officer Steve Ballmer. Ballmer acquired the Los Angeles Clippers basketball staff for $2 billion in 2014 as well as simply unveiled the group's brand new home, the Intuit Dome. (Quick Business calls it "Steve Ballmer's $ 2 billion playing field for Los Angeles Clippers enthusiasts.") The crew and also sector have offered Ballmer a feeling of objective that has, somehow, eclipsed his knowledge at the technician titan. "I have actually dealt with a lot of products over the course of my career at Microsoft, and I've enjoyed them all," Ballmer informed me during a job interview this month at Intuit Dome before an audience that consisted of participants of the Young Presidents' Association in addition to construction laborers who assisted construct the center and their families. "However ... in the development of the property, I possibly had a clearer viewpoint of what I intended to carry out, and I have the most satisfaction, not even if it thrived, however [considering that] it is actually an investment in the community, as well." Intuit Dome has actually quite been an enthusiasm task for Ballmer, that looked for to guarantee that all supporters possess a superior adventure. Every seat is actually created with simple accessibility to concessions and also washrooms, phone charging capabilities, and also enough lower leg space, despite ticket price.Ballmer's sizable financial investments are actually repaying. The Clippers won 51 video games in the 2023-2024 season, and also finished 4th in the NBA Western Association. (The Dallas Mavericks did away with the crew from the playoffs.) And Ballmer regularly positions as one of the leading NBA proprietors in supporter polls.He is actually a not likely shining example for post-CEO lifestyle. His retirement life from Microsoft in 2014 after 34 years at the company and thirteen years as chief executive officer was actually emotional and also filled. Though incomes virtually tripled during his tenure, the equity basically went stale, and also the business missed the opportunity to come to be a player in smart phones and also world wide web services. Struggling coming from the business's panel, Ballmer found to renew the business just before essentially making a decision he was not the greatest person to move Microsoft onward. A press reporter that chronicled his separation from Microsoft defined him as "quite saddening to leave behind the firm." CEO, reinventedPart of what produces Ballmer a second-act results tale is that he didn't choose to recreate his company life. Rather, he took an option to get the Clippers after previous co-owner Donald Sterling was actually prohibited from operating the crew or even associating with the NBA. "Possessing a lot of selections may result in decision fatigue, going back to fail choices, or even staying away from choosing completely," Wilderotter as well as her co-authors claim, advising ex-CEOs to as an alternative redefine their reason or identity. (Ballmer is likewise creator of USAFacts, a detached records company.) Expense George, the past Medtronic CEO that modify themself as a leadership master after retirement life, has claimed that the past Chief executive officers who prosper are actually the ones that discover methods "to generate or even nourish points that will outlast all of them." During our meeting at the arena, Ballmer resembled this sentiment. "Someone told me the moment, 'No one ever truly owns a basketball staff. You look after it. You shepherd it, and you carry it along,'" he states. "Intuit Dome can be a small amount of what I carry out to shepherd this staff throughout. Given that it is actually had by the supporters at the end of the day, and our experts simply deal with it." Are you an one-time CEO in a second act?Are you a former chief executive officer that has located function in your second act? How did you handle discovering your new identity? Deliver your ideas and stories to me at stephaniemehta@mansueto.com. I'll share the absolute most compelling instances in a future newsletter.Read and enjoy much more: 2nd process Put on the absolute most Cutting-edge Providers Honors and also be actually acknowledged as a company driving the planet onward with development. Early-rate deadline: Friday, August 23.