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At one of my former employers, their CEO is earning $20-$30 million every year
He’s been in that role for at least 15 years and theres no sign of him stopping
I do wonder how much you have to love your job to love it more than what 15 years of $20 – $30 million would allow you to do
well that's clearly the thing - get to C-level of any FTSE- or similar stock-exchange listed company and you've already earned everything you need. So its not about the money, its about.... something I don't understand
Sounds cheesy but I was always driven by the thirst for knowledge and the excitement of solving problems, rather than success and status per se. But the constant struggle to get my ideas heard and accepted has always been stressful and unpleasant and I got to the point of saying **** it I don't need this any more. So I've stopped.
Simples:
I always think why, why don’t you do it for a few years, bank it all then retire? Why carry on?
Because, as I explained in my post above and others have re-iterated, for some folk it's not actually about the money. For some it's about the opportunity to have more control over your own situation and, in doing so, make what you believe to be the "better" decisions. In most organisations, that ability only comes with promotion, usually to some sort of management role, and therefore also incurring a pay rise.
Then we come back to the "why work if you don't have to" question (which we've done recently) and the "how much do you socialise with your colleagues" question (which we've also done recently). It's really not worth trying to understand other folks views on these things, just accept that we're all a bit different.
For me it was a combination of wanting to do better, to prove myself, more cash of course and so I could help provide a better service.
Now it’s which cafe to visit today and if I go for a pint instead.
I think also there’s a “secret ceiling” to be broken through. I once heard Deborah Meaden suggest that getting to £100k salary is very hard; getting to £200k is pointless due to tax, £300k and above demand political and financial investment.
I went as a guest to an investors meeting a few weeks back and apart from a few stereotypical Indian, Chinese and Brits in suits and a couple of Saudi’s wearing gaudy Rolexes, There were about 30 people who looked like they should be selling the big issue. Conversation revealed everyone in the room was at least a millionaire (except me of course) but also more than middle aged.
I’ve no idea how one gets to £m “C Suite” salary e.g. the CEO mentioned above without working 100hr weeks from the age of 20 or buying into a company. A former company I worked in had a similar scenario, he left on a suspected £100m payout after leaving the company at 1/6th it’s share value, wtf.
Seems most of us are destined to the grind. Although my current appointment has annual equity (executive e.g. not purchased share) allocation, maybe this is the way - 3 to 5 years of that, leave the investment as a non exec Dir and repeat aka fingers in many - growing - pots.
I thought for many years that I was chasing a career, turned out what I was actually after was control. I wanted to be in a position in which my life was not subject to peoples/organisations mistakes, whims or opinions. I have that now, took me probably 45 years. No single client, organisation or the Bank can take control of my life away from me.
Is it fun? Is it helpful? And does it pay the bills? and the rest has been a ‘career’.
plus ‘you and your research’ has some challenging pointers https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-01156-6_6
My wife's god father must be approaching 80. He still has a couple of interest. He retired about 50 having had a very lucrative career in accounting. He took on more work after retiring - largely because it was fun for him and he enjoyed it. Some people do genuinely enjoy this stuff. It's a bit like someone giving you money to ride your bike. There would be people out there who would hate that as an idea yet to many of us it would be the ideal solution - fun and income.