<i>I think if you want to become a CEO you have to first (critically!) a) figure out what makes a successful culture and then b) become a person who enjoys and thrives in that kind of culture.</i><p>I don’t know if I see this as much value add.  Finding out what makes a successful culture doesn’t seem trivial, much less easily repeatable.  Different cultures can succeed in different circumstances and many different types of cultures can succeed.  I also believe cultures evolve more than they are created.  To me your argument sounds like saying “to succeed in starting a business you need to figure out what it takes to make a successful business and become a person who thrives doing that.”   Working at Google is no more likely to teach you how to start a business than to create a culture.  Sure you can learn things that worked there, but only some will work for you and some will likely work against you.  The best I’d say you can do is recognize culture is important, try to learn what decisions leadership can make that affect culture, and understand how those decisions impact the business both short and long term.  There’s no magic formula for business or for culture.