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Comment by echelon | Hacker News Reader

Working nights and weekends got me a close to ten figure exit at a now publicly traded fintech. So yeah, I don't mind.

Rather than retiring on that money, I'm back at it again, and I'm working even harder.

I know what mediocrity and complacency is. I've worked surrounded by it, and I'll do anything to avoid it. I don't want that bullshit where coworkers strive to do the minimum and everybody plays hot potato to see who will take responsibility.

I'll take responsibility. And I'll take the high comp that comes with it. Not have some union pencil in my salary band according to arbitrary rules that don't directly map to solving customer problems.

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> Working nights and weekends got me a close to ten figure exit at a now publicly traded fintech. So yeah, I don't mind.

It's an entirely different matter if you stand to make huge gains if the company succeeds. That is not the majority of jobs in the field. Most of us will never even have the opportunity to be involved in one of those. That's not what this discussion is about.

Great!

But don't enforce that on your underlings. I have such a boss and let me tell you, it sucks!

Your underlings have lives and passions that have nothing to do with you or your work, and more importantly they don't have that founders' equity and opportunity for a 10-figure exit.

If you want that kind of excellence, be prepared to pay for it dearly. Market-rate TCO is not nearly enough.

While I don’t necessarily disagree with the larger point on mediocrity, that’s a massive instance of survivorship bias. For every you there’s a hundred others that burned themselves out only for them to be fired a moment after.

Oh, this person isn’t a worker class. They’re managerial class spreading essentially propaganda against something that would threaten them,

I've always been an IC.

If you got a 10 figure exit then you're not working class.

I'm such a scatter brained dumbass sometimes. I meant "near 8 figures". I'm nowhere near "three commas" of wealth. I was emotionally responding to these pro-union comments between work and can't simple math.

I still can't fathom the headspace of people wanting to do less and be entitled to more while the rest of the world is catching up and offering a better value. The lasier we get, the less likely we'll be picked to do the work. And this is such a goddamned cushy job. Are we so fucking entitled we're complaining about our career? Seriously?

I also can't reason about why people think this is about money rather than building cool shit. If this is your hobby and you enjoy building, why wouldn't you want to do this? Especially if you pick your problem space?

Why are there so many people like this on a startup forum? Shouldn't everyone here be hustling and working hard? I don't get this attitude, and I don't want people like that on my team to drag me down.

I support this because precisely because it is not everyone's hobby, even if it is mine. I have more than enough money. Some people do not. And I assure you it's not because they are lazier or dumber than I am.

> I also can't reason about why people think this is about money rather than building cool shit.

I'm working to make money to pay my mortgage, put food on the table, save for retirement, and build a better life for my small family. That is the motivation that keeps me showing up.

If I want to build cool shit then I'll do it on my own time. Unfortunately, not everyone can build a startup.

The fact that you think a union only exists to "drag (you) down" speaks a lot about you.

Please. You don't make 10 figures on your work.

Its how you exploit other people is where you get $1,000,000,000 or a billion worth.

What? You claim to have gotten a nearly 10 figure exit, yet you claim you made 450 k$ TC in your last job [1]. Even a maximally conservative estimate of 100,000,001 $ for a “nearly 10 figure exit” (being literally 1 dollar over 9 figures) would get you over 4 M$ annually in risk free treasuries. Why would you work for 450 k$?

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43429259

Maybe he's counting decimal places too?

Yeah, I fucked that up [1]

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43431883

Cross-posted to LinkedIn?

This is funny, but not the type of comment we really want here. Comments should get more substantive the deeper down a tree you go.

As cringe as LinkedIn can sometimes be, I certainly relate more to it than to r/antiwork.

Imagine putting your time and energy into something other than building a bigger imaginary pile for yourself.

You made close to a billion dollars?

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