The Fall and Rise of David Pottruck

His son, crushed, called him on it. "My whole life, I've been number two to your career," he said. "I really thought now your business stuff would take a back seat." Pottruck felt like he'd been punched. "I had so let him down," he says. "It was a major wake-up call: I'm not a CEO anymore. And that means I no longer have the right to make those excuses."

In May of this year, some of the feelings Pottruck felt he had so successfully conquered came tumbling out when Fortune magazine ran a story titled "Charles Schwab's Big Challenge." The article quoted Chuck Schwab, who seemed to place the blame for the company's troubles squarely on Pottruck's shoulders, even though as co-CEO and then chairman for so long, Schwab had been involved in virtually all of the company's key decisions. Schwab wouldn't comment.

"Was I in a funk for about a week about that story? Absolutely," Pottruck says. "I was angry and embarrassed and saddened. It sucked me back into what happened when I had been working so hard to move on." Eventually, Pottruck just rationalized the whole thing. If he wanted to move on, there was no other choice. "The best thing for the company after the CEO goes is to try to blame everything on the old guy," he says.

By this time, though, Pottruck had managed to put his own decisions under the microscope. He regretted never doing any contingency planning for Schwab that would have served it better as the bubble burst. He felt the sheer number of projects he launched hurt the company by keeping it from focusing its energies on the best ones. He should have developed a better relationship with his board. And he realized that his heavy focus on the details made it too hard for his subordinates to grow and slowed decision making at the top of the organization.

Stage V: Recovery

Obsession with the loss has ended, and the individual is able to go on with his or her life.

They say the grieving process takes a year. So perhaps it's no coincidence that on August 1, 2005, Pottruck was to venture back into public life -- not as CEO, but rather chairman of a new $200 million airline startup called Eos Airlines, which will provide first-class-only service between New York and London at business-class prices. While Pottruck is no airline expert, he knows plenty about taking on incumbents from his Schwab days.

Pottruck's role is to be a coach and mentor to CEO and founder David Spurlock. He is thrilled, but also a bit nervous, perhaps because of his own experience with a very involved chairman and his own natural impulse to run the show. Can Pottruck learn to exert influence without any real control? "It's very hard," he says. "Very hard. I'm amazed that I can do it at all." Spurlock says he welcomes the help. "I pick up my phone whenever my instincts tell me to do so," he says. "It's especially fruitful for me to hear a different perspective. I've rarely met a man as open as Dave."

Pottruck will also take on the chairman role at another company equally far afield from financial services, one that does all the furniture buying for large hotel chains. Pottruck hopes to help the company create a channel for consumers to buy the furniture directly.

It's a less powerful but more diverse new life, and Pottruck seems thrilled to realize how much he enjoys it. "He's absolutely back. Even better. Schwab was our whole focus," says Bagan-McGill. "Now he sees a world out there with all kinds of business opportunities. And we both agree it's going to be fun."

But while Pottruck has moved on in life, it's clear that the idea of the corner office has not quite gone to its final resting place. "I love 90% of my new life," he says, a tiny bit wistfully. "But I miss the business challenge and the big leadership. Every morning when my feet hit the floor, I had a compelling purpose. Other people were counting on me to fulfill an extraordinarily challenging leadership role that demanded nothing less than the best of me every day." Any takers?

Jennifer Reingold (jreingold@fastcompany.com) is a Fast Company senior writer.