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When most people think about self-made millionaires and billionaires, they imagine some entrepreneurs working around the clock, passionately toiling away in the pursuit of greatness.
There are 3 important things that can help make you rich if you work for someone else:
You have to be doing something truly useful, adding value. Preferably something important that no one else could do as well as you. Otherwise you’re a commodity. Being a commodity never makes you rich. Ballmer added a lot of value to Microsoft — he came up with the enterprise sales strategy that made Microsoft so powerful until the 2000s. Microsoft would have been much smaller without him.
Negotiate well. Once you know that you’re adding value, you have to get compensated appropriately. This could include performance bonuses, profit-sharing, equity, or other ways of having your income reflect the value you create. When you know you’re good, it’s better to have less of a guaranteed income and more income that depends on what you actually do. Ballmer negotiated an unusually high equity deal when he joined Microsoft. And I have no doubt that as an executive he received a lot more over time. If you work for someone good they won’t give you all of this without negotiating but they will be happy to pay you well.
Pick the right person. Working for a mediocre person in a mediocre business will only lead to a mediocre income until you get kicked into mediocre unemployment. On the other hand, do you think that working for Elon Musk can never make you rich? There are huge rewards for working with the best in the world… whatever your world is. If you’re a specialist in implanting cybernetic devices to control mouse brains, work with one of the 3 top people who do that. Ballmer obviously made a good choice here. But if Microsoft had failed he could have quit and moved on to another company. He didn’t have to invest years of his life until after he was already well-compensated.
If you do all three of these things it can be very easy to get rich.
There are plenty of successful rich people who made their fortune by working for somebody else. It does not matter whether you work for somebody or run your own business. What matters is: Are you doing what you are extremely good at? Are you putting your efforts in the right place for the right people?
In most of the cases the path to become rich by working for somebody else is quite longer and tests your patience but you will eventually succeed if you made right decisions at right time and stood strong for yourself and believed in your skills.
There are number of successful executives in each and every big company who made their fortune by contributing to the growth of the company in the longer run and have reaped the benefits when the company became successful and profitable.
Remember the following: Know your strengths and weaknesses. Do what you like and give it your best. Keep yourself up-to-date with latest technology in the field of your work. Learning is a continuous process. Express opinion when you have one and never underestimate yourself. Be ready to work hard and be loyal to your work. Team work is the path to success and you alone cannot move the mountain.