What happens when the company we built no longer needs the version of us who built it?

At some point, I walked into a building as the CEO of a company with over 600 employees. I looked around and realized our HR department had more headcount than our whole company used to be, which made sense because we were managing $10 million a month in payroll.

Our focus had moved toward doubling headcount — again. We were recruiting top execs from Fortune 500 companies to help us plan an IPO. These were the same people who would have never even looked at my resume a few years earlier!

I was 26 years old at the time, and it was becoming evident to everyone, especially me, that this company had clearly outgrown me. It was time for me to go — but what do ...