Next Step Magazine: How did you get where you are today?
Jim Spanfeller, president and CEO of Forbes.com: I was in college and wanted to be a writer. I took English lit and creative writing classes. To actually get paid, I took a job as a journalist. The only problem was it was a non-paid job, an internship, at The Nation magazine. I eventually ended up being on the business side and worked my way up through the ranks.

NSM: What is important today about being the CEO of a successful company?
Spanfeller: You want to provide a vision that people can rally around and get excited about. But at the same time, you’ve got to have a really clear focus on the details. They say, “God is in the details,” and it’s the details that make the vision happen.

NSM: What do you spend most of your time doing?
Spanfeller: When I got here, it was much more externally focused. As the business has grown, we’ve added more employees and it’s become more complex. It begins to be much more internally focused, which is not necessarily a good thing, other than the sense that you want to keep your people excited and engaged. Your most important clients are your employees. But the way you’re actually going to make money and survive and flourish is by talking to people outside the company.

NSM: What are the traits you see in successful CEOs?
Spanfeller: I think there’s a different path for a lot of different things, a lot of different people. Having an open mind is really important. At the same time, you’ve got to have humility in a sense that all the good ideas cannot be yours. And in fact, most of the good ideas won’t be yours.

I think a core facet you’ll find in any successful leader is the ability to unite people for whatever groups of reasons around specific goals.

NSM: What’s your advice to teens who want to run a company?
Spanfeller: Play team sports. Or be the editor or publisher of your school paper. Or be the director of the school play. In other words, just get involved with a group that needs to have leadership, and then try to provide that leadership. Know you’ll make mistakes along the way, and there are times when you’ll be chastised by your peers and be a bit humiliated. That’s part of the learning process, and the great thing you can take from that is how to deal and move on.

David Mammano is founder and CEO of Next Step Magazine.