Does anyone else enjoy the rat race?
I see so many otherwise bright people nowadays constantly complaining about the rat race. They want a high-paying job yet don't want to work the hours to maintain it; they want career growth and high-impact work yet are reluctant to expend the necessary effort to earn such responsibilities. Years of such criticism and negative cultural attention have attached only negative connotations to the "rat race"--when in fact the "rat race" is the easiest path, and only path, to greatness, and to a life of significance.
I enjoy the rat race because I see myself in an executive position in the future, with the ability to shape entire industries. This isn't exclusive to the corporate world: researchers also play the game because they want to gain access to tenure and high-impact funding so they can better understand the universe. I'm genuinely curious as to why many of you choose to enter demanding fields despite your values being diametrically opposed to said field.
To say that IB/PE is the "only path to greatness" is dumb as fuck. If you really want to slave away working 70+ hours for 20 years until you can make MD, by all means go for it.
But just know that there are many, many, many other paths to wealth. There are some computer science kids making more than what an MD make at age 24. Just take a look at Doordash those dudes were SWE nerds but now are billionaires at under age 30.
I know people that literally own restaurants/car wash stations that make millions. One guy I know joined a startup out of college and is now ready to retire, and one other guy I know makes a fuck ton of money from real estate. Heck, I know people that resell products online and make significantly more than what IB analysts make..
What "the path/ratrace" offers is a very low-risk way of making it to upper middle class wealth, but at the expense of working insane hours. If you truly want to make a ton of money with chill hours, do something else.
Where in my post did I mention IB/PE? The "rat race" extends to all industries, which is literally why I brought in the academia example. In fact, many of the "bright people nowadays constantly complaining about the rat race" I mention are in tech. Do you really think that in creating what DoorDash has become today, the Doordash founders and early employees clocked out at 5pm every day just to watch Netflix and complain about work? They were pulling in 80+ hr weeks, I can guarantee you that, and that's with doing far more mentally exhaustive work than banking. Even entry-level SWEs at Doordash/TikTok/Databricks-tier startups pull in 50-70 hour weeks if they want any chance at increasing their TC. It's only at Microsoft that one can make a couple hundred thousand working 30 hour weeks--and that's because they'll never see more money than that for the rest of their life.
The people you know are impressive, but irrelevant to this post. What this post aims to address is the simple, yet prestigious path to corporate greatness, accessible to literally anyone who wants in, wherein hard work, dedication, and intelligence are eventually recognized and rewarded, plain and simple.
the doordash guys/people who created startups grinded like hell until they made it, but after you reach a certain level of success you don't have to work that hard. The M&I guy has enough money to retire actually and said he barely works. That peak frameworks guy said he works 20 hours a week and makes a couple/few hundred k a year.
Also "simple, yet prestigious path to corporate greatness" is so dumb. Like what is your ultimate goal from this? wealth? Because youre better off creating your own business
I'd rather have a billion dollars than 'corporate greatness.'
In your example, the 80+ hours building a billion dollar company that the DoorDash founders and early employees were likely pulling is vastly different than the 80+ hours a banking analyst is pulling banging around on their keyboard and moving powerpoint shapes around...
Managing directors at investment banks and private equity firms are not “upper middle class”. They make shitloads of money. So many silver spoon kids on this forum
If you make it to an MD yeah you'd be "upper class" but that's after 15+ years of working 70 hours a week. it's also extremely difficult to make it to MD...
OP sounding like an Undercover Boss before he lays off a whole facility (actually happened in one of the episodes after he complimented them at the end, a lot of executives tend to have inflated ego and think they can really shape an entire industry working from their C-suite office... happen to know two at my previous employer).
In response to OP, I enjoy the rat race to get to roles where I have the most autonomy. Those happen to be senior roles at most companies.
The rat race is the only path to a life of significance?
May genuinely be the most pathetic sentence I’ve ever read on this forum
You’re not going to be able to shape “entire industries” being another cog in the wheel at a company.
Rather than thinking about how good of an executive you will be, try thinking of your own original idea.
As a junior the promotion path is fairly well defined. Once you hit manager/senior manager/VP (depending on role) the path forward is not well defined. If you think simply working hard will get you an executive level position, you’ve fallen for the corporate Kool-Aid already. By the time you hit senior manager everyone is a hard worker, and unless you are extremely talented, hardworking and have a great network to make the right lateral (much less chance of getting it at your own firm) you’re not getting promoted to the director level. Then you need to be all of this things again among directors which is a very small subset of people. I think the true rat race occurs at this middle management stage. People who keep working but don’t have the talent, social or political capital or imagine getting promoted at the same firm and despite working hard they go nowhere.
Looks like somebody wants attention and reactions lol. Highly doubt any reasonable person thinks the only path to a life of significance is through the rat race. But come back when you're MD while everyone else is enjoying their lives.
Don't forget the validation they are probably seeking too.
@ OP, doing well at your job, gaining competence and increased responsibility is constructive and good, but should fall within a bigger picture.
Don't ever forget that no matter what you do for a firm, you're just a number and if you get sick or fired no one will remember or care what you did.
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I just wanna be able to live comfortably, but NYC rent says otherwise :(
The rat race is great when your moving up. It becomes really hard to stay motivated if things flat line in your career.
"I'm just here so I don't get fined."
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