They are too busy running their companies to worry about fluctuations in market valuation. Any way you look at it, financial worth alone is by no means an adequate measure of entrepreneurial success. Many intelligent people, business owners and non-business people alike, measure their success by how much money they save from their annual earnings. The popular book, The Millionaire Next Door , points out that both offense and defense are necessary to building wealth for most people. Further, reasonable frugality is a desirable trait for an entrepreneur, as it shows responsibility.
Frugal businesses are often successful businesses.
Yet, someone will argue that a person who earns money should be able to spend it as they wish. They still ran their business profitably and should be considered successful. The financial success of a business is best measured by focusing upon the company profits for the year. Some allowance might be made for the level of investment the company makes toward future growth and future profits, so as not to penalize a company for investing in the future. Again, for publicly traded companies, Wall Street is most concerned with profits or earnings.