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"One of our things is that money follows; it does not lead." --Dan Gilbert In my experience, successful people go work hard and are excited about "the right th

"One of our things is that money follows; it does not lead." --Dan Gilbert In my experience, successful people go work hard and are excited about "the right things" and incur financial benefits along the way. If you are working on the right stuff in the right way, on average you should get good comp/bonuses. On the flip side, if your only connection to your work is the bonus then you're probably unhappy anyways. "Sometimes people mistake generosity for not being fair. Generosity is good, entitlement is bad, and they can easily be confused, so be crystal clear on which is which. Decisions should be based on what you believe is warranted" -- Ray Salio Other comments talk about becoming entitled to bonuses, while they are genuinely discretionary. Broader, people get used to any perks and complain if they go away. This is reality of life on one hand but a flaw in individual thinking on the other. Personally - as an employee I seek places where I can feel good about the relationship between the company and the people. When that's right, I'm more understanding if bonuses are tight during a lean year or the espresso machine gets downgraded. As an employer I look for the same thing in employees. Why would I hire those who don't care about their work mission in an emotional way? It's not that everyone has to love derivatives trading, it's that the best people find a way to connect and care about what they are working on and be genuinely excited about it and want their team to win. It's a great attitude and I believe it leads people to much more success (and none of this is to say you should stay on a sinking ship or tolerate a bad work situation -- never do that. But there's something to say about maturely weathering the ups and downs of a worthwhile relationship) In a good company, it's ride or die together and both the company and the people feel that way. If this is crazy to some people I feel they are missing out on some genuine upsides of what work can be like.

soulbadguy 6y ago
> In my experience, successful people go work hard and are excited about "the right things" and incur financial benefits along the way. If you are working on the right stuff in the right way, on average you should get good comp/bonuses. Is this true, or a form or survival biais ? I am most of us agree that working hard is somewhat a requirement for meaningful success. What is in question here is whether it's sufficient. We all know a lot of hard working people who aren't successful From my experience, in the business world, unless one if very lucky or incredibly talented incuring financial benefits doesn't just happen from hard work. And the first step is the ability to ask a fair share of the value one is generating. > "Sometimes people mistake generosity for not being fair. Generosity is good, entitlement is bad, and they can easily be confused, so be crystal clear on which is which. Decisions should be based on what you believe is warranted" -- Ray Salio I think one can be unfair in the way one is generous.
- xyzelement 6y ago
  > And the first step is the ability to ask a fair share of the value one is generating. I feel like you missed my point. I am talking about getting into a employer-employee relationship that you can feel good about. Compensation is obviously a huge component of that and you should absolutely make sure it's what you need and deserve. The point I am making is that if your relationship with your employer is so weak that you're walking out because of what happened with a single bonus, then you weren't in a good relationship to begin with. > I think one can be unfair in the way one is generous. Yes and it doesn't matter. The example that Ray Dalio uses in his book is this - the company office is in Connecticut and a lot of employees commuted from NYC. So at some point Ray bought a bus to shuttle employees back and forth. Sounds like a purely good thing, right? Well, some Connecticut-based employee complained - the NYC-based people got a "gift" in convenience and cost of their commute, so he thought that Connecticut people should get something to improve their commute too (ignoring the point that their commute was never as bad to begin with). Ray points out that this is a huge entitlement - just because you gave a gift to someone, doesn't mean others deserve. The point is - you can't manage your company and your life to meet the whims of the most unreasonably entitles. And on the flip side, the less unreasonable expectations you have, the happier you will be.

soulbadguy 6y ago

> In my experience, successful people go work hard and are excited about "the right things" and incur financial benefits along the way. If you are working on the right stuff in the right way, on average you should get good comp/bonuses. Is this true, or a form or survival biais ? I am most of us agree that working hard is somewhat a requirement for meaningful success. What is in question here is whether it's sufficient. We all know a lot of hard working people who aren't successful From my experience, in the business world, unless one if very lucky or incredibly talented incuring financial benefits doesn't just happen from hard work. And the first step is the ability to ask a fair share of the value one is generating. > "Sometimes people mistake generosity for not being fair. Generosity is good, entitlement is bad, and they can easily be confused, so be crystal clear on which is which. Decisions should be based on what you believe is warranted" -- Ray Salio I think one can be unfair in the way one is generous.

xyzelement 6y ago
> And the first step is the ability to ask a fair share of the value one is generating. I feel like you missed my point. I am talking about getting into a employer-employee relationship that you can feel good about. Compensation is obviously a huge component of that and you should absolutely make sure it's what you need and deserve. The point I am making is that if your relationship with your employer is so weak that you're walking out because of what happened with a single bonus, then you weren't in a good relationship to begin with. > I think one can be unfair in the way one is generous. Yes and it doesn't matter. The example that Ray Dalio uses in his book is this - the company office is in Connecticut and a lot of employees commuted from NYC. So at some point Ray bought a bus to shuttle employees back and forth. Sounds like a purely good thing, right? Well, some Connecticut-based employee complained - the NYC-based people got a "gift" in convenience and cost of their commute, so he thought that Connecticut people should get something to improve their commute too (ignoring the point that their commute was never as bad to begin with). Ray points out that this is a huge entitlement - just because you gave a gift to someone, doesn't mean others deserve. The point is - you can't manage your company and your life to meet the whims of the most unreasonably entitles. And on the flip side, the less unreasonable expectations you have, the happier you will be.