Silicon Valley seems to prefer "founder," but all those traits sound close to "leader" in my book.
It is a dangerous thing to not think like a leader until you get to a position of leadership, as a) without a leader's mentality you may not even get to that position and b) once you are there you may not be as effective as you'd like (since you did not have any practice thinking that way).
This should be qualified. Their are formal and informal notions of leadership. You are only a leader to those who follow or report to you, but there are other beyond that scope with or for whom you work. Part of "being a leader" is knowing the difference. A 2nd lietenant is a leader to his platoon. In many ways, he's more of a leader than his higher ups.
But he does a huge dis-service to himself and his team if he doesn't integrate his team's operations into a larger context. That doesn't mean just "following orders" per se. (Although respecting formal rank goes without saying). It might just mean keeping a distinct identity for good morale and "brand image" for his platoon, however subtly (reliable, good to work with). So when assignements or opportunities arise he is well placed to get his pick of the litter.
Likewise, this idea scales. A CEO needs to maintain such a position with his company in the market place. And a similar position in the minds of his investors relative to their other portfolio companies, etc. So, you don't outgrow this. You are never to young. Or too old. Or too successful. Its just a question of scale and peergroup and mental frame. Everybody has a boss. etc.
So, a leader knows how to exploit his position. But he never ignores it, images it, or forgets it. He is aware of it and works to improve it. And he keeps this all in proportion to the scale with which he is endowed with both respect and authority.
A small anecdote. I talked with the CEO of a startup who was looking for a CTO. They were building a brand which they would leverage into an advertising magnet using crowd sourced content. "Great, but online advertising comes from Google, why would Google sell ads on your product?" was my response. They had a great product idea, and good execution, but the business of advertising online really was built around search ads, nearly everything else was remnants. The missing piece was fitting into the existing infrastructure in a way that could fund them until they could pull in advertisers directly.
Difference between thinking like an engineer and thinking like a founder. Where does your idea add value, how much value does it add, and how much of that can you keep after you give away enough to facilitate adoption of your product.
The point is that your title "Why You Should Quit Your Job to Be a Founder" contradicts your explanation here. So it is a link bait title.
I did however like the article.
Jumping into the water before learning how to swim because somebody said "hey, the best way to learn how to swim is to just do it - that's how I did it!!"
The most difficult challenge for young adults inexperienced in the adult world of employment/business (corporate politics, backstabbing vendors, non-paying customers, unscrupulous business partners, etc.) is separating the noise. I believe this post (although well meaning) is "noise" that will harm more than help.
The trouble with your argument is that many highly successful founders did just that.
Much of what people learn inside existing companies is toxic.
I don't think I advised anyone to quit one's job and become a founder in the strict sense. Dorsey redefined what it means to be a founder (someone foundational to an organization, regardless of when they joined) and I advised that the skills founders possess are valuable as an employee and founder alike.
> I don't think I advised anyone to quit one's job
I had a modest exit on my own startup, then ended up joining an existing company that I like a lot just so that I can learn some of these skills for the next time around. It's been extremely hard to maintain that perspective day to day though, because the experience has spoiled me and made me hard to work with.
Let's take some highly desirable attributes in an employee and give them a label "Rockstar". Er, no. "Founder".
When words are the currency of persuasion, expect inflation.
When I read articles such as this one, I rejoice at the idea that youth is eternal.