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Will Johnson can still hear the question that momentarily muted a management dinner and prodded the gathering\u2019s executive diners to thoughtfully dispatch an answer. \xa0\xa0

\u201c\u2019If you weren\u2019t in your current role, which one\u2014held by a peer at this table\u2014would you assume?,\u2019\u201d recalls Johnson, echoing the inquisitor\u2019s words.

\u201cThere were some really surprising answers,\u201d he continues, noting that the head of sales expressed a desire to lead HR.

Still, no answer was perhaps more surprising to Johnson than his own. \xa0

\u201cI actually did cite the CFO role,\u201d comments Johnson, who even now\u2014after having subsequently held three consecutive CFO positions\u2014seems to be a bit surprised at his willingness to supply such an answer that evening.

At the time, Johnson was a senior corporate development executive\u2014albeit with future CFO aspirations but until that night they had been left unspoken, at least in gatherings.

Johnson reports that there was a period in his career when he found it difficult to admit to himself and others that the CFO role was becoming accessible to him.

\u201cShame on me! I still had in my head an antiquated notion of what it took to become a CFO,\u201d remarks Johnson, who credits a CFO mentor who entered the office from the more traditional CPA route with having dissuaded him of the notion that he too needed to be a CPA.

\u201cThe role\u2019s orientation itself had really shifted to where you were spending as much time looking out the windshield as you were in the rearview mirror,\u201d observes Johnson, who mentions that he\u2019s speaking specifically of venture-backed and high-growth firms. \xa0\xa0

If Johnson left the dinner with any doubts about having voiced his answer that evening, they likely vanished 6 months later when the company\u2019s CEO, accompanied by a board member, approached him to be the company\u2019s next CFO. \xa0\u2013Jack Sweeney