&gt; Results don&#x27;t matter, it&#x27;s how much effort you appear to be putting in. This is what is valued. CEOs need to appear like they are valuable.<p>This is truly sagacious statement. Modern CEOs represent almost none of the value generation for the companies described <i>except</i> for the part where things are sold or money is solicited. Perhaps that is a cruel and thoughtless quantification of corporate leadership, but I&#x27;ve worked for some truly bad and even gross leaders. People who offered me hard drugs for performance. People who revealed company secrets to sound good in interviews. People who proudly posted about their underage sex tourism on facebook. Bad people. So I don&#x27;t put much stock in it.<p>So, I suspect that this is a compensation for the other fact: CEOs are hiring and then selling that team. CEOs claim to recruit, lead and inspire their talent. They&#x27;re all too aware of what&#x27;s actually critical to the functioning of a company. They&#x27;re all too aware of who they can&#x27;t lose.<p>So maybe they&#x27;re actually doing this for themselves? To say, &quot;See? Maybe I am not as smart or creative or talented in a way that directly benefits our business, but I work as hard as everyone else put together because I care more.&quot;<p>But all the same I should start trying to wake up early to exercise. It&#x27;s not like there is any other time I could do it. ;)