Elon MuskElon Musk has stated that he will step down as CEO of Twitter once a successor has been found

Twitter was purchased for $44 billion by Elon Musk. Elon Musk may be preparing to take a break after all of the drama and policy changes on the fly. Tweeted a poll asking Twitter users if he should step down, a remarkable act made more remarkable by how routine it has become as a key component of the billionaire CEO's management strategy.

The Twitter poll, which closed early in New York, received a resounding "yes" from more than 57% of the over 17 million respondents. It's possible that Musk's "should I quit" poll came just a few hours after he was spotted watching the World Cup final in Qatar, where he most likely met with Qatar Holding, a key investor in his Twitter deal. Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia is also a supporter. If they were unhappy with Musk's performance over the last month, now would have been the time to tell him to get his act together. Musk may be Twitter's "owner," but he is still accountable to his backers, especially if he is having difficulty finding new investors for the company.

Last week, the billionaire's family office approached several potential investors and attempted to sell equity at $54.20 per share, the same price Musk paid when he took the company private. If Musk follows the poll's results, it will most likely be someone from his trusted inner circle of executives who have followed him from Tesla Inc. and SpaceX to Twitter. According to a former Twitter employee, Steve Davis, a former president of Musk's tunneling venture Boring Company and one of the earliest hires at SpaceX who is known for working 16-hour days, is now one of the most senior managers running a day-to-day business at Twitter.

David Sacks, who worked with Musk in the early days of PayPal Holdings Inc. and has been a vocal supporter of Musk, is another candidate. Whoever takes on the role will inherit a jumble of undefined policy and product changes and a volatile proprietor looking over their shoulder. Musk isn't known for keeping promises, so there's reason to believe that even if he technically follows people's votes, he'll continue to run Twitter in his unconventional way; after all, he's said that the title of CEO is meaningless. However, his seven-week tenure as Twitter's CEO has been marked by so much chaos and stress that he may just go ahead with this one.

Musk has wanted to leave Twitter since before he bought it, most likely because he knew that running a social media business was one of the most thankless jobs imaginable. It is the reason why former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey went on long meditation retreats and Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg escaped into virtual reality. With algorithms rigged to keep users engaged, social media creates stress for users and platform operators. Musk has been on the verge of burnout while attempting to strike the impossible balance between free speech and policing user behavior. He has tweeted conspiracy theories and has grown increasingly paranoid about rising criticism leading to assassination attempts.

He's even suspended people for posting links to competing platforms, including venture capitalist Paul Graham, a Silicon Valley royalty who had previously applauded Musk's efforts to his 1.6 million Twitter followers. Aside from all the drama surrounding suspensions and constantly changing rules, Musk is failing at his most important task: making enough money to cover the $13 billion in debt he took on to buy the company, plus those pesky $1 billion annual interest payments. Musk sold $3.6 billion in Tesla Inc. stock on Wednesday, possibly to help reduce Twitter's debt burden, but his options are dwindling. Tesla's value has dropped by 60% since the beginning of the year. Musk recently suspended a group of journalists, joking that a few days away from Twitter would be beneficial to their health. He might be willing to follow his advice.