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Comment by enraged_camel | Hacker News Reader

Why would she want to work after making literally hundreds of millions of dollars?

Why would anyone?

That's what I don't get about these people. I'm not saying they should retire, but they can still keep their professional connections and a semblance of "work" life by sitting on various boards or doing non-profit stuff, and not actually have to deal with the humongous stresses of C-level work.

I mean let's be honest: $186M is enough to last Marrissa's descendants forever and ever. If I were in her position, I would figure out a way to make my exit. It's not like she's the founder of Yahoo so there won't be any emotional or moral attachment.

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>That's what I don't get about these people.

The thing is, the reason you think this way is the same reason why you won't be as successful as her. Because by the time you make your 1MM, you won't take these big risks any more.

Money was clearly not the issue. She was at Google very early and ended up VP. Clearly she didn't need the money.

I didn't see MM take any big risk here. Success -> large payout, failure -> still a large payout. Elon Musk is taking risks.

Taking the job leading a sinking ship was a pretty big risk.

And if the ship had sunk, what did she stand to lose?

She didn't need the money -- she wanted the power that comes with being the CEO of a big corporation. And I'm willing to bet that applies to most CEOs of big companies, as well as the higher-ranked corporate officials jockeying for position.

>>The thing is, the reason you think this way is the same reason why you won't be as successful as her.

If you define success as "has money" then yeah, probably. But that's okay, I don't need nearly as much money as MM. Money, after all, has significant marginal utility. The difference between having $10M and $50M is not that much, unless you have extremely expensive hobbies.

I already have that problem and I'm nowhere near rich. Just rich enough not to care about tomorrow. I do still work but only when it is (a) interesting and (b) pays well. Other than that I'd rather do family stuff and private projects.

If I had that kind of money I don't think I would still be able to put a value on my time.

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