I became a leader late in my life. One of the reasons I never sought to run anything is that I had always felt a powerful need for control. That sounds like a good reason to become a boss, but I always imagined it would be nearly intolerable to have others do things their own way, rather than mine. Nearly a decade ago, at the age of 50, I launched my own company with a handful of employees. In the early days, it was mostly about me. I delivered keynotes based on a book I'd written, ran seminars, and did nearly all of the selling myself.