I read it differently. To me Steve seems to be saying "if you want to avoid getting replaced, you need to learn to scale your skills for each stage of the comp

I read it differently. To me Steve seems to be saying "if you want to avoid getting replaced, you need to learn to scale your skills for each stage of the company". Managing 20 is a very different problem than managing 300. Having lived through that transition once as an early employee of a startup that made it, Steve pretty much nails the issues we faced on the head. In the case of that startup the founder didn't scale and needed to be replaced much sooner than it happened. I would have preferred it if the founder did scale better. Managing around your founder for his own good is some of the most soul draining work ever created.