Partnerships are run more like guilds than public companies. Many years ago my friend was offered partnership track to a medium-sized accounting firm. It was so

Partnerships are run more like guilds than public companies. Many years ago my friend was offered partnership track to a medium-sized accounting firm. It was something like a $1.5 million up front payment to join, but they had partner banks who would give you the loan with a long (30 year?) payoff like a mortgage, so every time a new partner was added it diluted the profits, but all of the existing partners got an immediate payoff. And there are tiers of partners, so a junior partner gets way less profits, like a pyramid (isn't everything like this?). I assume VCs, law firms, and similar partnerships operate the same. So arresting the partners involved in this makes sense, as it is more like a group of individual rainmakers working under one brand rather than a traditional company. And my friend didn't join, instead he switched to small firm where their employees were like strike-force mercenaries. He had a specialised skillset and was willing to move anywhere for a year at a time. Wound up going from ~$150k in 2008 money to over $400k with the insane travel sacrifice schedule, overtime, etc. He is still there but manages the young people doing that while working from home, and makes good money still. I own a highly profitable small-ish business where I want longterm employees, but my incentive is staggering payments so your profits balloon after staying 5 years, but then you have to wait 7 more years to get all of your profits, so each year you get another 7 year profit vesting. So the handcuffs are very reinforced to prevent people leaving. Some people still leave though, but very small turnover at the VP / senior leadership level.