For a long time, the world of entrepreneurship was told through lone heroes. Steve Jobs in his garage, Elon Musk challenging the automobile industry and Xavier Niel shaking up telecoms with daring ideas. These stories have shaped an entire generation of creators fascinated by the figure of the visionary founder, the one who sees before others, who dares everything, who “changes the world”. But this vision, seductive to tell, is also deeply misleading. The era of heroic storytelling is coming to an end.
Because the truth is that no entrepreneurial adventure relies on a single isolated genius. Behind each “visionary”, there is a team, doubts, compromises, mistakes and, above all, collective intelligence in action. Today, the myth of the solitary hero gives way to a much richer reality: that of shared leadership, co-creation and strategic humility.
1/ The myth of the visionary founder: a story forged to inspire (and sell)
Stories of visionary founders are not born by chance. They are the fruit of a perfectly oiled media and marketing construction.
The media loves simple stories: a charismatic individual, a brilliant idea, a spectacular success. It’s a clear, emotional narrative that captures attention.
Investors also have an interest in feeding this myth. It is easier to raise funds behind a face, a strong personality, than around an anonymous team. A strong name is a brand.
Finally, the founders themselves, often driven by the need for legitimacy, despite themselves maintain this image: that of the intrepid captain who guides the ship against all odds.
But behind the heroic storytelling, the reality is quite different: most entrepreneurial successes are deeply collaborative.
2/ Behind each “genius”: an invisible army
Take the emblematic example of Apple. Steve Jobs became the archetype of the visionary founder: charismatic, demanding, visionary. But few people know the essential role of Jony Ive, the designer who imagined most of the iconic products; of Tim Cook, who built the industrial apparatus; or even hundreds of anonymous engineers who made Apple “magic” possible.
Same thing for SpaceX or Tesla: Elon Musk did not “invent” the reusable rocket or the efficient electric car alone. He knew how to surround himself with brilliant teams, attract the right talent and create a framework where ideas could flourish.
The genius is no longer the one who has all the answers: it is the one who knows how to ask the right questions, and listen to the right people.
3/ Why this myth becomes dangerous for today’s leaders
He maintains excessive pressure
Heroic storytelling pushes many leaders to believe that they must embody everything: vision, strategy, culture, communication. This over-responsibility often leads to exhaustion, loneliness for the manager, or even burnout.
However, no business relies sustainably on a single human being. Permanent heroism is an untenable posture.
It slows down collective creativity
When everything revolves around a “visionary”, others sometimes stop proposing, daring, contradicting. Speech becomes rarer, ideas freeze. Overly centralized leadership kills spontaneity and, with it, innovation.
It hides the complexity of reality
Creating a business is not a long river of brilliant intuitions: it is a series of trials and errors, iterations, tests, and renunciations. By glorifying the “perfect vision”, we make reality invisible: entrepreneurship is above all a collective learning process.
4/ The era of “we”: when success becomes plural
More and more companies and managers are accepting this reality: success is collective.
The founders who promote the collective
Some recent entrepreneurs openly detach themselves from it. Guillaume Gibault, founder of Slip Français, highlights his teams and partners rather than just himself. At Alan, Jean-Charles Samuelian repeats that the strength of the project lies in “a shared culture”, not in a messianic figure. This change in tone is not anecdotal: it reflects a new maturity of leadership. Today’s founders no longer want to be heroes but orchestrators of talent.
The company as a living organism
We are moving from a pyramidal logic to a systemic logic.
The company becomes an ecosystem where everyone contributes to the common vision, without depending on a single central brain.
This requires a profound change in managerial posture:
- less control, more trust,
- less “me”, more “us”,
- less talking, more listening.
5/ How to tell the story of business creation differently
If heroic storytelling is running out of steam, that doesn’t mean we should give up telling stories. On the contrary: leaders must learn to tell stories differently. Here are three ideas.
Highlight the collective trajectory
Rather than centering the story on the founder, tell the story of alliances, learning, team moments.
Example: instead of saying “I had the idea for this product when I saw a need in the market”, prefer “It was by talking with our customers and our engineers that we understood what was really missing.”
This type of storytelling reinforces the credibility of the message, while humanizing the company.
Accept the gray areas
Heroic stories erase doubts and failures. However, they are the ones who create trust. Leaders who dare to say “we were wrong, we learned” inspire much more than those who claim to have mastered everything. Transparency is no longer a weakness: it is a modern form of leadership.
Promote “discreet heroes”
Customers, employees, partners, the first investors… The entrepreneurial story gains power when it gives a face to these “shadow heroes”. This creates a multi-voiced story, much more believable and engaging than a seminal monologue.
6/ The benefits of shared leadership
Better resilience
When the vision rests on several heads, the company becomes more resilient to crises. If a Founder jumps ship, the mission continues. We have seen it in many cases: companies based on a strong collective culture survive transitions better than those centered on a charismatic leader.
Reinforced attractiveness
Today’s talents, particularly the younger generations, seek less to “serve a vision” than to participate in an adventure. They want meaning, space, recognition.
A more organic innovation
Innovation arises from the intersection of perspectives. When speech is distributed, ideas circulate more quickly. The collective then becomes a machine for learning, for testing, for renewing itself.
7/ How to move from “founding hero” to “facilitating leader”
This shift cannot be decreed: it must be cultivated.
Here are some concrete keys for leaders who wish to initiate this change.
Create co-decision spaces
Involving teams in strategic choices, even partially, changes the dynamic of responsibility. Some companies establish “open decision-making committees”, others adopt shared governance (holacracy or co-direction type). The main thing is not the method, but the posture: agreeing not to decide everything alone.
Cultivate horizontal recognition
The founder does not have a monopoly on recognition. Learning to celebrate individual contributions, to highlight team successes, already rebalances the story. A simple “here’s what our product team accomplished this week” can have more impact than an official statement signed by the CEO.
Tell your story with authenticity
Managers’ communication is evolving. The smooth and over-controlled speeches are tiring; true testimonies, anchored in everyday life, captivate. Narrating your journey, your doubts, your collective learning – without posturing – becomes a powerful lever of influence and inspiration.
8/ A new era of leadership: from charisma to connection
The economic world is entering an era where individual charisma is no longer enough.
What matters now is the ability to connect: to connect talents, ideas, professions, generations. The good leader is no longer the one who shines alone, but the one who makes others shine.
He is no longer a “hero”, but a conductor: he sets the tempo, ensures harmony, and knows when to let a soloist express himself.
This form of leadership, more humble, more conscious, more human, is not a weakness. It’s probably the only sustainable one.
