If someone offered you a CEO job for millions, would you take it?

[GoldenSummer]

If someone offered you a job as CEO of a fortune 500 company making millions per year, would you take it?

I feel like if you aren't already rich, answer should be a resounding "YES!" but for those who are already financially free, answer might be "meh."

Many men focus on increasing their "passive income" but instead they should focus on their active income.

Maybe is just for me but I would rather choose to make 100mil/mill being a CEO, than 10k a month "passive income"

 

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[Rabby]

Many men focus on increasing their "passive income" but instead they should focus on their active income.

Maybe is just for me but I would rather choose to make 100mil/mill being a CEO, than 10k a month "passive income"

But in reality the two things go hand in hand. Nobody makes 100 million by flipping sofas on craigslist one at a time. They do it by freeing up their personal time and maximizing the leverage on their unique skills and resources. They are in effect making most of their income passive (it's happening while they sleep, or walk the dog), but still choosing to work full-time to increase the asset(s). Nothing wrong with either choice really (being content with a moderate passive income or shooting for the moon), it just depends on how much you want and when, and what you need to spend your time on at a particular point in your life.

 

[Guest-5ty5s4]

I feel like if you aren't already rich, answer should be a resounding "YES!" but for those who are already financially free, answer might be "meh."

No.

Perhaps my hypothesis was correct? No details?

 

[Kak]

No.

Agreed.

 

[woken]

Okay, the real conclusion I think is that most people have a number and it depends heavily on how rich (or not) they are right now.

And that people like to portray a certain persona online.


Full of philosophers.

 

[liams_bad_at_biz]

No, I would not take it (I do not have millions). A $50K to $100K salary keeps so many people trapped. Imagine how trapped you would feel making millions per year at a CEO job?

"I really want to pursue this other business that society needs, but I get paid millions to do this CEO job that takes up all my time and kills my soul, so - I guess I'll just keep doing it."

So true

 

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[S.Y.]

I’m just finding some of these answers hard to believe. Maybe if the pay was $1M, but Fortune 500 CEOs avg compensation is around $15M a year.

So none of you are getting out of bed for $1.2m a month? Guaranteed?

Do you realize that one year in this job and you have f-you money the rest of your life?

Even if your net worth is $5M, if would be hard to turn down tripling your net worth in a year.

Think about how hard it is to start and run a business and then exit for $10m? How long does that take? 3-5 or even 10 years of grinding?

And now you are guaranteed $10M in a single year whether you do good or not. How do you turn this down?

Oh but you have no freedom. One year of hard work vs 3-5 years? Which choice is the one that’s really the sacrificing your time here?

But is is also often tied to securities linked to performance and that have a vesting attached to it.

I know because I have access to compensation data. That's my field.

Most here would not perform enough to get that level of payout, or won't have the endurance to withstand the scrutiny and stress.

I would not run a fortune 500 company...

 

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[Mat79]

I would definitely take it. I'm way too far behind where I want to be in life right now and don't see any clear path forward from where I am. So yes, if someone offered me an opportunity like that, I'd jump at it. I don't care if I had to move across the country or move across the world, live in a foreign country, in the cold, or whatever, I'd do it. I'd attend boring meetings, dress up in suits (which I hate), deal with publicity and smile when I took the check home. Heck, I'd do it for a lot less than a million. I've actually been applying for jobs that pay more, but haven't managed to land one yet.

It's not my first choice to work for someone else or have to deal with a lot of stress of course, but if you have a clear opportunity to elevate your life, and help those you care about, it seems ridiculous to say no. (Assuming you don't have more desirable options close at hand.)

I understand the people who feel they already make plenty of money would say no, but for my situation, I would embrace the suck and do the job until I found something better or didn't need it anymore.

 

[David Fitz]

Sure. =)

I’m always amazed how some guys are ‘devouring’ MJ’s books yet they skip the “get a job as a way to bootstrap your business” part. LOL


Also,

this is the same as saying “If I found 1 Tonne of gold on the street, I wouldn’t take it, because it’s heavy and my back would hurt.”

This is a pretty dumb comment.

Getting a job to fund your business is getting something easy like a security guard so you still have time to build your business. Getting a job as a CEO in a big company will take up most of your time, long hours and leave you exhausted with little to no time to build your business so enjoy the rest of your life being stuck in the trap.

Not sure what the gold comment is about either. If you find gold by yourself you can take it. Find gold in someone else's business and they'll want their share and leave you with hardly anything.

Seems like you have a job mentality.

 

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[maximusharrison]

No, thanks, that would be good bye and farewell to my social life!

 

[MexicanCreator48]

If someone offered you a job as CEO of a fortune 500 company making millions per year, would you take it?

I feel like if you aren't already rich, answer should be a resounding "YES!" but for those who are already financially free, answer might be "meh."

Maybe, but the issue here is that you will have to work for a lot of hours sacrificing any work-life balance you have. If you have a romantic partner, you will probably not see him/her much since you would have to work extra hours.

 

[Kevin88660]

I’m just finding some of these answers hard to believe. Maybe if the pay was $1M, but Fortune 500 CEOs avg compensation is around $15M a year.

So none of you are getting out of bed for $1.2m a month? Guaranteed?

Do you realize that one year in this job and you have f-you money the rest of your life?

Even if your net worth is $5M, if would be hard to turn down tripling your net worth in a year.

Think about how hard it is to start and run a business and then exit for $10m? How long does that take? 3-5 or even 10 years of grinding?

And now you are guaranteed $10M in a single year whether you do good or not. How do you turn this down?

Oh but you have no freedom. One year of hard work vs 3-5 years? Which choice is the one that’s really the sacrificing your time here?

The answer is yes for me, for the sheer size of income, but as you said it is properly a poorly designed question.

The sheer amount of competition for a top ceo position, statistically is much tougher than a businessman exiting with 5-8M selling his business.

Rather instead we could ask what is the “slowlane” pay cheque that you would give up for your fastlane/business pursuit. Afterall if it is big enough it becomes “fast”.

But the problem is it is far away from big enough for most people.

It is like asking would you give up the medication if you had no illness? More likely yes but so what?

 

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[Guest-5ty5s4]

Maybe, but the issue here is that you will have to work for a lot of hours sacrificing any work-life balance you have. If you have a romantic partner, you will probably not see him/her much since you would have to work extra hours.

What if you're a highly skilled person but you're in crippling debt, just lost everything, have a horrible life situation, but this job is going to use all of your skills and pay you a fortune and you don't have to work there forever? It could be a massive win. IDK, there are a lot of factors, as have been hashed and rehashed on this thread.

The question was not designed for this thread, nor can it be perfectly catch all, with everyone's life scenarios and variables in a paragraph.

 

[David Fitz]

“Hey I just got drafted into the NBA!”

“Don’t take that job. You won’t have any time to work on your fastlane business.”

They won't if they want to build a fastlane business instead of playing basketball but the post was about taking a job as a high paid CEO. You guys are trying anything so people will say yes to taking a high paying job because that's what you want to do.

 

[David Fitz]

Not at all... In fact, this was extracted from Random Chat, and wasn't even intended to be a thread... We are all here because we are or want to become Fastlane entrepreneurs...

It's not rocket science that a job that pays you millions is a pretty nice launchpad to your entrepreneurial journey.

It's also a launch pad to comfort and comfort kills your dreams.

 

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[Ing]

Yes. Why? I m in an age, where I have nothing to loose by it. The best ting is, I get paid a lot learning a lot. The worst: they fire me after a week. So, well, I wanted my money up front!

 

[David Fitz]

Aren’t a high paid CEO and an NBA player both employees?

Yes.

 

[Jon822]

In my current situation, I would have to say yes. I am currently in a 9-5 job and if the Fastlane is a literal lane on the highway (as opposed to walking, bicycling, etc.), then am I still opening the garage door. Fortune 500 CEOs easily make at least $1m per month so to say no because it is a "job" is ridiculous. The only way I would say no is if I was already wealthy or my current business was yielding a trajectory toward financial freedom. In the latter scenario, I would be trading the guaranteed CEO money for the freedom from job constraints and the ability to work on something of my own. Assuming you make $12m per year as CEO and 80 hours per week, you'd be getting paid about $2884.62/hr. You'd have to be already rich or near the end of the Fastlane to achieve this kind of number.

 

[Rex Wee]

If someone offered you a job as CEO of a fortune 500 company making millions per year, would you take it?

I feel like if you aren't already rich, answer should be a resounding "YES!" but for those who are already financially free, answer might be "meh."

I would do it for one year.

 

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[DarkZero]

I think it's too easy to overthink the question.

First it's "how much money will I make?"
Then it's "how many hours will I work?"
And then it's "what about the lifestyle"
And "what about experience"

People should forget about the specifics. This is strictly hypothetical to group the CEO salary + lifestyle and it's simply asking if you want that package deal versus doing your own thing.

I think if we generalize the question to say you'll have the typical CEO lifestyle of working many hours in a week to get the fortune 500 salary of 8 figures take home annually, people don't need to think past that.

It really comes down to, will you utilize that money in some way? Will you leave after X number of years to do your own thing or leverage that network?

Not even talking about the success rates of CEOs. Because we're all on this forum, it would be a tough thing for us to accept it, mainly due to lifestyle design. That's why some of us would only take it for a year in the role and then leave just to collect the comp plan.

Personally, I would consider it for the right company that I would enjoy the process of steering the ship. But strictly for compensation, no.

 

[Levit]

I would have to say it depends. If I'm at the start of my journey and I haven't gotten a business off of the ground yet, then hell yeah I'm going to take it. It doesn't mean I'm compromising on my values, I can do it for 6 months then quit with a lot more freedom and startup capital than I had before. The only thing is you'd have to be very careful not to upgrade your lifestyle while getting that pay cheque.

On the other hand, if I already was in the middle of growing a business, even if it didn't pay anywhere near that at the time, then hell no I wouldn't take it.

I think if you're not lucky enough to start out with money or able to live with your parents for a long time, then you realise that having a job for a time can be a necessary evil while you build something on the side and/or get enough runway money to quit and go fulltime on the business.

 

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[Bouncing Soul]

I think the thought experiment is a good one, but I have some close personal experience with execs and athletes and entrepreneurship and I think the individual personalities and situations and resultant individual agency of the high performers has more impact than is being discussed here.

Would I take a million dollar job? It depends!

 

[Lethabo]

If someone offered you a job as CEO of a fortune 500 company making millions per year, would you take it?

I feel like if you aren't already rich, answer should be a resounding "YES!" but for those who are already financially free, answer might be "meh."

For the exposure I'll take it

 

[SPM_ENT]

If someone offered you a job as CEO of a fortune 500 company making millions per year, would you take it?

I feel like if you aren't already rich, answer should be a resounding "YES!" but for those who are already financially free, answer might be "meh."

100% Yes.... depending on the company.

If I could run a company in an industry that I was interested in which already has a massive reach and influence and I could use it as a platform to adapt, improve and insert my ideas to achieve a positive change then, Yes. It sounds like a lot of fun to me. I already work a lot of hours on my current business because I love what I'm doing. Take that same feeling and insert myself at a higher level, my answer is yes. Now is that possible? Am I naive? Most likely but in this made-up scenario, I'd be willing to take on the challenge to find out.

Also, no one is asking me to do this because I don't have the skills to be at that level.

Currently working on a company I believe I can exit for 50m.