CEOs of publicly traded companies, where a significant chunk of their compensation is stock which can be sold on an open market, sure but not all CEOs. In my e

CEOs of publicly traded companies, where a significant chunk of their compensation is stock which can be sold on an open market, sure but not all CEOs. In my entire career the highest paid people in a private company (including multiple high growth B2B startups) has always been the top sales people. Not the sales manager, not the CEO, an individual contributor Sales person. As you hit more and more above quota, accelerators kick in where you commission percentage increases massively. And our CEO loves writing them those checks because good sales people way more than pay for themselves.