I say meh to all of this. You're better off taking that extra time and spending it on side projects and side businesses that will give you independence from you

I say meh to all of this. You're better off taking that extra time and spending it on side projects and side businesses that will give you independence from your current company. When you take taxes into consideration, the promotions don't really add up to that much. You're just adding to your yearly income, which tends to get taxed quite heavily anyway. You need to find a way to take your effort and put it into something that doesn't get taxed as much as regular income does. I would be more interested in building passive sources of income that don't rely so much on my being present to bring in the money. I also generally don't like the idea of someone else telling me what my contributions are worth. By putting in all those extra hours, you're basically pinning all of your hopes on someone else's judgment. If they like you, then maybe you'll get that extra money. But what if they don't? What if they're just some sociopath who couldn't give a rip about your career goals? In my experience, that's been the case more often that not. It would take one hell of a leader to convince me it's worth putting in all those extra hours. I would basically need assurance from the very beginning that I would be getting a bigger cut of the pie.