Canada Goose boss avoided printing ‘CEO’ on business cards for years after taking over at 27

Success·chief executive officer (CEO)Canada Goose boss avoided ing ‘CEO’ on cards for years after taking over at 27By Orianna Rosa RoyleBy Orianna Rosa RoyleAssociate Editor, SuccessOrianna Rosa RoyleAssociate Editor, SuccessOrianna Rosa Royle is the Success associate editor at Fortune, overseeing careers, leadership, and company culture coverage

She was previously the senior reporter at Management Today, Britain's longest-running publication for CEOs

SEE FULL BIO the Arnault and Murdoch heirs, Dani Reiss was thrust into leadership decades before the average aspirational worker could expect

Such “nepo babies” or “nepo CEOs” are often underestimated when handed top jobs—a sentiment Reiss told Fortune he knows all too well. “It wasn’t for another good 10 years, until my mid 30’s or so, when I realized that I was a good leader,” he admits

But stepping into the company’s top role when he didn’t really want it did little to convince him or others that he was deserving of the job. “Once I decided to stick around, the people in the company that had started to become more successful self-selected out, and a lot of people that were there in the early days left,” he admits before adding: “To be , there weren’t that many people to begin with, we had four employees at the front office.” Reiss couldn’t even bring himself to his shiny new CEO title on paper. “I had two or three cards,” the now 51-year-old exec remembers. “One was blank, one said, marketing manager and one said, international sales manager. “I didn’t have a card that says CEO and I didn’t have a card that for many years

I just didn’t feel that that was appriate, actually.” Once the brand got “bigger and more important,” he felt he had finally earned that right. “I was meeting with bankers and people who needed to understand that they were talking to the person who made the decisions,” he said. ve yourself for the C-suite Despite having built Canada Goose into the empire it is today, Reiss doesn’t plan on ing tradition and handing the helm to one of his two children—at least, not any time soon

Firstly, he says they’re too young

But more importantly, the is a far cry from the scrappy company he joined in the late 90s, with holders, a global foot and much higher expectations. “Our company was tiny and I would say most people were betting against our survival,” he explains. “It wasn’t a child joining a large established corporation, that often happens these days.” But either way, looking back, his advice to anyone who wants to inherit the throne at their parent’s company is to ve to themselves and others that they deserve that spot first. “In hindsight, if hypothetically, I did think I was going stay there [for more than one year] and did want to be the CEO, I think you have to be the hardest working person there,” Reiss reflects. “I have children, I don’t imagine them in the

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