DAY ONE
CONGRATULATIONS! You've made it to the top. You're the CHIEF!
CHIEF INFORMATION SECURITY OFFICER, the CISO.
Sounds pretty damn good! It's feels pretty damn good too!
I AM THE CISO!!! YAY ME!!!

SOMEWHERE BETWEEN DAY TWO AND NINETY
I'm (still) grateful to be the CISO. I get paid to make a difference, and it's great to be in a position where I can!
It's a lot of work though. Like ALOT or work. It didn't seem so hard from the outside. Maybe I'm just not doing it right. Or, you know what? I'm still adjusting. Yep, that's it! Still adjusting.
This will be great!
Now that I think about it, it's sort of lonely here at the top too.
Oh well, whatever. Remember, I'm adjusting and I'M CISO!

SOMEWHERE BETWEEN DAY NINETY AND WHAT SEEMS LIKE ETERNITY
Wow. Now I realize that it's lonely at the top, AND the wind blows the strongest at the top of the mountain!
Between the unrealistic expectations of the "business", lack of collaboration with other executives (namely the CEO), preaching the same shit everyday, the politics, and very limited resources, I'm starting to miss the good old days.
WAIT?! What am I saying?! I'm the damn CISO! I'm the the top dog, and this is awesome!
Now I need to figure out how to tell my wife I'm going to be late again tonight...

IF YOU'VE BEEN PAYING ATTENTION...
You may have noticed that you're playing a game that you CANNOT win. You are being held accountable for things you're not empowered to control. Everybody looks at you when you know they should be looking at themselves.

That damn head of research and his damned grants! There's no way in hell I'm going to get him to use MFA on the data repository.

Bill in sales is a real turd too! Just because he brings in millions of dollars of business, it shouldn't exempt him from following the rules! He's putting the business at risk!!!

Crap, and what about Sally, the head of the London office? She keeps playing the politics card with me and I don't have the same kind of pull she does.

My budget keeps getting cut, I feel like I'm losing the respect of my peers, and I always feel like I should be leading my team better. Speaking of my "team", I'm running at 40% staffing level right now! THIS IS HARD!

To top it all off, I'm not sleeping very well, my wife is distant (and usually pissed at me), and I have no time to take the new boat out.

THAT'S IT!!! I CAN'T WIN!!!
Oh this sucks! Now what? I've got two kids in college, a big house payment, this nice car I've got to pay for, and this fricken boat I never get to use!
I can't quit! What will happen with everything I worked so hard for?

Shit.

I'll just go with the flow and try not to make waves anymore. That "change" I was so excited about at the beginning? Yeah, screw it. I'll just play the game to lose.