This content outlines seven actionable strategies for employees to build significant wealth through their careers, emphasizing that entrepreneurship is not the only path to becoming a millionaire.
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You don't need to start a business to
become a millionaire. Most millionaires
in the US built wealth without launching
companies. They did it by growing a
career. From entry level to leadership
roles, I did the same. If your calling
is to be a founder, great. If not, then
this is your operator's manual. Seven
moves that can create real wealth from a
9 to-ive job. Here's our first move.
Pick the right industry. You might be
running an 80hour week, but are you on
the right track? Eric Schmidt once said,
"If you're offered a seat on a rocket
ship, don't ask which seat." The right
company in the right industry can help
you break barriers. Research from
Georgetown Center of Education found
that your choice of industry can impact
lifetime earnings way more than your
college degree. Even the smartest
surfers can't move if the waves aren't
there. Some industries reward you with
joy and fulfillment like nonprofit,
education, healthcare, and some reward
you with equity or other financial
upside. It's not always either or, but a
growing industry can change the shape of
your trajectory. You might be thinking,
what if I'm not in a growthbound
industry today? Does that mean game
over? Not even close. It just means that
that's the lever you haven't pulled yet.
Angela Duxworth started as a consultant,
then became a teacher, then a
researcher, then a professor, and then
an author, and that's when she hit it
big with her best-selling book, Grit.
And she was in her mid-40s by then. Jim
McKelby is another great example. He was
a glass blower teaching at Washington
University. He switched to fintech in
his mid-40s and became not just a
millionaire, but a billionaire. He
co-founded Square. So you can pivot all
the way in your 40s. I started in the
wrong function in the wrong industry.
Like most of us when I graduated, I had
no experience. I was scared of being
unemployed. So I just took the first job
that came my way. But over time, through
mentors, trial and error, and support
from a lot of folks, the path became
clearer. I was able to find my way to
the work that I loved in an industry
that still lights me up. I am sharing
this because when I started my career, I
remember feeling totally stuck. Now I
look back and think our early choices
don't sink us, they shape us. Remember,
there is always a second act. Don't give
up. Two action steps. First, wherever
you are today, run an industry fit
audit. You need to ask five questions.
Number one, is my industry growing
faster than GDP? Two, does it reward
innovation and risk-taking? Three, do
employees share in the company upside is
that the culture of that industry? Four,
are there clear advancement paths? And
five, how is AI going to hurt or help
the industry in the long run? Second
action item, speak with at least two or
three people in an industry or a company
that you find interesting and learn
more. Why did they pick that industry?
What do their paths look like? Where is
the momentum? Let's say you recognize
that the industry you are in today is
not a good fit for you. Well, that's
great progress already because most
people don't even ask these questions.
The industry that you're in today does
not define your future, but it might
delay it. So, that's why this is the
first move. Find the right industry fit.
Move number two, choose the right path.
Are you a specialist or a generalist?
Behind every great career is one of two
patterns, depth or range. David Epstein
wrote this great book called range where
he shows that in roles like product
strategy, business development or
general management where you need to
synthesize C patterns and align across
functions and teams. Generalists tend to
do very well. And meanwhile, roles that
demand deep expertise in domain
knowledge like neurosurgery or software
architecture or quant trading. That's
where specialists tend to dominate. When
you are thinking about long-term career
growth, here's a career evolution model
to keep in mind. Phase one foundation
years 0 to 5. Everyone start as kind of
a specialist. You need some real skills
to get hired and prove value. So in
first 5 years you have to build some
depth. Phase two is when you're going to
see the fork in the road. Years 5 to 10,
at this point, you have two options.
Option one is step. Double down on
whatever you're doing and become the
go-to expert in that specific task or
role. This often leads to faster
promotions and higher compensation.
Option two is range. Use your base to
branch out across functions. You're now
on a generalist path. It is slower to
ramp initially, but it has a much higher
ceiling later on. Phase three,
accelerate on the path you've chosen. If
you are a specialist, go even deeper and
command premium rewards. If you're a
generalist, go broader, go higher
towards strategy, synthesis,
integration, and leadership. What you
want to avoid is getting stuck in that
mushy middle called the career fog zone
where you're not deep enough or broad
enough to cut through the fog. Let's say
you're not sure yet about which path to
take. Well, that's normal. Many of us
don't have it all figured out by our
mid30s or even our early 40s. The point
isn't to have all the answers. It's to
keep asking the right questions.
Wherever you are in your journey, take
the next step. Here's the action plan.
Talk to someone who is 5 or 10 years
ahead of you and who has chosen a path.
A generalist and a specialist. Talk to
both types and ask them how did they
decide? What helped them grow? What do
they still focus on improving? Some
careers are like tunnels, others are
like bridges. Either can work if you
build it with intention. Your third
move, build your performance engine. We
think about careers in terms of our
daily commute, but it's more like an F1
race. If you want to win, you need a
high performance engine. Our careers are
not just about us driving on a scenic
route. There are lots of folks driving
on the same track, right? Trying to get
ahead, hairraising turns, super high
speed, brutal competition, lots of
crashes. One good framework to
accelerate your career in my experience
is RPM. Anyone who is aspiring for a
high growth, highreward career should
monitor these three gauges. Reputation,
production, mastery. If you want to
accelerate, you have to rev all of them
up. Mastery. This is your edge. Not your
degree or your title, but the work that
you do when nobody's watching. that
extra 1% that others will skip, but you
won't. You've probably heard so many
stories about all these elite
performers, like Tiger Woods waking up
at 6:00 a.m. for workouts, 1,000
contacts with golf ball every single
day, relentless focus on his short game.
That's what mastery is about. Whether
you are after depth or range, you have
to work really hard to make it look
really easy. The second reputation.
Reputation isn't about being liked. It's
about being trusted when stakes are
high. That's what others remember about
you. As Warren Buffett said, it takes 20
years to build a reputation and 5
minutes to ruin it. As you get into
senior positions, you realize that no
matter how shiny your resume is, your
reputation will matter even more. Third,
production. Here's the math. We have to
produce 10x more value than what we
capture. We don't get to make a million
until we have created $10 million in
value for someone else. What's your
action plan on revving up your RPM? At
the end of every week, you can ask
yourself, one, who did I help when I
didn't need to? Number two, what extra
value did I create for others? And
number three, what did I work really
hard to learn? Try to move the needle on
all three gauges every week. And if
you're already doing some of this
machine tuning, congrats because that
means you're watching your other drivers
in your rearview mirror. Keep working on
your RPM. Keep driving forward. Move
number four, get closer to the customer.
Proximity is power, but most of us
misunderstand what that means. Sometimes
when you feel you're underpaid, you
might be too far from the customer. When
Uber was doing its IPO, as the story
goes, every big investment bank was
fighting for a piece of that business.
One managing director at a large bank
did something very simple but smart. He
drove as an Uber driver for a couple of
weeks, talking directly to passengers
and learning about they liked and what
they didn't like about Uber. The board
and the CEO at Uber chose his bank. The
bank collected $40 million in fees.
That's not the only reason they got the
deal, but the board really appreciated
that the managing director took time to
understand the customers and hence
understand the business. Everyone
obsesses over proximity to the corner
office, but not as much as proximity to
customers. Every dollar in your paycheck
and your CEO's paycheck is driven by one
thing, right? Customers decision to keep
buying your company's products and
services. The closer your work is to the
customer, the more leverage you will
build. Internal roles like finance,
operations, and HR matter a lot as well.
And you don't have to be in sales to
influence revenue. If you are a
financial analyst, you can unlock
insights that help your company grow
deeper relationships with your best
customers. What if you are in IT? You
can build some internal AI tools that
accelerate deals. So, these are all
moves that directly impact the company's
bottom line because proximity to
customer isn't just about money. It's
about understanding the business at its
fundamental level. Here's the action
plan this week. Map exactly how your
role impacts the customer. How far are
you? How will you bridge that distance?
Find one small tangible project that
gets you closer to the customer, closer
to the revenue, even if you have to
volunteer for it. No matter where you
are in the company, you have more
influence than you think. Your
contributions can always move the
needle. Next is move number five. Make
asymmetric bets. This type of risk can
change your entire career trajectory.
Sometimes if you want to grow, you have
to gamble. So what is an asymmetric bet?
This is a bet where your upside is high
and your downside is just your bruised
ego or something. years ago I uh
interviewed for a company that I deeply
deeply admired. It was a long intense
process like 10 to 12 interviews and the
hiring manager who was the senior vice
president built great chemistry with me
throughout the process. Even the
president of the company, who was my
last interview, bonded with me during
the interview, and it was great. And I
walked away thinking, "Yeah, I did
pretty well." But days later, the SVB
called and he said, "We'd love to hire
you, but the budget is $20,000 below
what you make today." And that was a big
pay cut. And I almost walked away. But
then I realized that this was my
asymmetric bet. Even though I was super
nervous, I called the president
directly. Heart pounding and all, and I
said, "I truly believe this company will
redefine the industry. Pay me less if
you have to, but we shouldn't let
$20,000 stand between us." And he
thought for a while, and he said, "Yep,
you're right. Let's make it happen." And
I got hired. Of course, they paid me
$20,000 less in salary, but they
sweetened the deal by giving me a little
more equity. I share this not to
highlight any brilliance on my part. I'm
not someone who always gets it right. I
fail more than most. My downside was
manageable. If he said yes, I could
afford that pay cut because I was single
at that point. And if he said no, well,
I'm happy making $20,000 more every
year. But the upside was enormous. A
careerchanging opportunity in a company
that I deeply believed in. And in fact,
that company did redefine the industry
and achieved a historic exit 4 years
later. Here's one framework to help you
assess the asymmetric bet. It's a 2x2
matrix. One, what's the worst that could
realistically happen? Two, if that
happens, can I recover from it in 12
months? Three, what's the best possible
outcome, the upside? And four, is the
upside at least five times bigger than
the downside? And now the action step.
Identify one or two asymmetric bets that
you can take this quarter or this year.
It might be as small as pitching a bold
idea or even asking your manager how you
can be more successful or as big as
looking at another company or another
industry. Sometimes you have to remind
yourself that you already have more
courage than you think. If you're
seeking out videos like this one, then
you're in the top tier of people who
have that growth mindset, right? And for
someone like you, the biggest risk might
just be not taking that asymmetric risk.
Move number six, master the financial
forest. Salary fills your bucket drip by
drip. Investments and equity make it
overflow. Think of finance as a dense
forest filled with winding paths and
hidden traps and buried gold. To
navigate it, you need a map and a lot of
discipline. And by discipline, I mean
sticking to three core principles.
Principle number one, avoid acting rich
too early. When I hit my first six
figure salary package long back, I
didn't upgrade my lifestyle. I upgraded
my savings rate. My wife and I stayed in
the same modest apartment in Boston and
drove the same beat up secondhand Honda
Civic. It wasn't always easy, but in
hindsight, it turned out to be one of
the smartest moves we made. Principle
number two, automate with systems. Most
of you already know this, but we all try
to save what's left after spending. But
the best strategy is to flip it, right?
Have a savings target and spend whatever
is left. Our financial success is driven
by our habits, not our hopes. Automate
your savings. 10%, 12%, 20%, whatever
you can afford as long as they are
consistent. It is smart to make the
system become your willpower. And
nowadays, tools like Betterment and
Wealthfront make it easier than ever to
build that system. Principle number
three, negotiate everything. The company
CareerBuilder did some research and
found something interesting. 70% of
hiring managers expect the candidate to
negotiate salary and somehow a lot of us
shy away from it for no reason. There
are so many great books on the art of
negotiation. One of my favorite is the
book called Getting to Yes. If you're in
tech or biotech or finance or any growth
industry, you should take one extra step
and also negotiate your equity. Learn
about how companies are valued, what
their current valuation is. So, if you
ask, they'll tell you. Think of equity
as a partial ownership because that's
exactly what it is. It makes you feel
like you're fully aligned with the
long-term success of the company. Two
action items on equity. First, carve out
some time and learn about the world of
equity. Learn about ESOP awards, RSUs,
ISOs, NSOs, terms like vesting schedule
or strike price, change of control
provision. The more depth you have, the
better you can negotiate in the long
run. And second, schedule a meeting with
someone who has negotiated equity
successfully. Learn how to think about
the tradeoffs between salary and equity.
And now our seventh move. Meditate to
monetize. Your most important meeting is
not on your calendar. You might be
thinking, "Come on, man. I'm trying to
make millions. Why are you talking about
meditation?" But here's the insight.
Harvard Business School study found that
employees who spend just 15 minutes at
the end of the day. Reflecting on their
work performed 23% better than their
peers. Reflection cuts through noise. It
sharpens your strategic thinking. It's
not self-help, it's self-scaling. And
now with Gen AI tools, you can
supercharge that habit faster and
sharper than ever before. The cost of
intelligence is literally approaching
zero. The real advantage knowing what to
focus on. Block 15 minutes at the end of
each workday. Ask yourself three
questions. What did I move forward
today? What did I learn? What matters
most tomorrow? That is the most
important meditation you can do for your
career. We all admire people who start
companies. And starting a company can
offer you a lot of autonomy, a lot of
control. There's a lot of upside and
it's not the only path. Industries like
software, cloud, biotech, finance, law,
medicine, pharma, accounting, sports,
and entertainment create millionaires
every year. The magnificent seven
companies alone have produced tens of
thousands of millionaires. Employees who
built wealth without starting their own
businesses. I hope these seven moves can
help you build wealth as an employee. If
you want to learn more about excelling
at work, check out my video on
communication skills to help you
communicate like a leader. And remember,
you are already on the right path. Keep
going. I'll see you next week. Thank
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