Dustin Muskowitz, co-founder and president of Asana.
Stephanie Keenan | Getty Images Entertainment | getty images
Meta co-founder Dustin Moskowitz spoke candidly about the pain of leadership and admitted that 13 years as CEO was “exhausting.”
Moskowitz, one of the original founders of Meta, formerly Facebook, co-founded the social platform in 2004 with Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Chris Hughes and Andrew McCallum.
After leaving Facebook in 2008, he retained a stake of more than 8%, making him a billionaire with a net worth of $12 billion, according to the latest data from Forbes. He became co-founder and CEO of work management software platform Asana in the same year.
Moskowitz announced his departure as CEO of Asana earlier this year and moved into the role of chairman, retaining ownership of 53% of the company’s outstanding shares between Class A and Class B holdings.
The billionaire recently opened up about what it’s like to be CEO at Asana, as well as his introverted personality, in an episode of the StrayCherry podcast by Ben Thompson released Monday.
“I don’t like managing teams, and that was not my intention when we started Asana,” Moskowitz said during the episode.
“My intention was to become a freelancer or head of engineering or something. Then one thing led to another and I was a CEO for 13 years and I found it very exhausting.”
He added: “I’m an introvert, I had to put on this face day in and day out and then in the beginning I was like, ‘Oh, it’ll get easier, the company will get more mature,’ and then the world got more chaotic — first the Trump presidency and the pandemic and all the race stuff, it slowed down a lot of company building, being a CEO is too much to react to problems and do things like that.”
Many famous leaders are introverts
Various notable business leaders, from Meta’s Zuckerberg to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO Warren Buffett, have described themselves as introverts.
Susan Cain, author of “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking,” said introverts are often passed over for leadership positions and thrive more in quieter and less stimulating environments.
He said that introverts have some hidden qualities that may make them suitable for leadership positions, including taking less risks, being more creative and being better at problem solving.
Cain said that introverted leaders can be “slow” and “cautious” when making decisions, which helps them avoid impulsive or reckless moves.
According to Cain, they seek more solitude which is “a real catalyst for creativity”.
“The two-tiered structure of how we view personality leads to a massive waste of talent, energy, and happiness,” Cain said. “We need to adopt more of a yin and yang approach to balance between the two styles.”
