If accumulating money is important to you there’s basically two ways to match this manager’s expectation: 1) work at Facebook/google/Microsoft/Amazon/etc for X

If accumulating money is important to you there’s basically two ways to match this manager’s expectation: 1) work at Facebook/google/Microsoft/Amazon/etc for X years, keep your spending low, and invest the rest wisely 2) work at startup X for 5-10 years and cash out in IPO A manager can easily see on your resume if number 1 applies. In which case we look at number 2. The odds are good that no matter your badassery, you WON’T hit the jackpot, because a company’s IPO likelihood is dependent on far more things than your contribution. What you see is some circuitous logic - “a talented person has made enough to retire”. But how do you define talented? By the fact they are of a certain age and have made enough to retire.