I'm currently living with 5 students. Of those 3 of them want to be "investment bankers". It makes me sad because they're all really smart, engaging guys and what they're actually saying to me is that they want to make-lots-of-money-regardless. If they said they wanted to go into corporate finance or commodities then that would be slightly different because at least it suggests that they've looked beyond the umbrella of "investment banking" and found an area might interest them.

Another thing that concerns me is the obsession that a lot of my friends have with a salary figure. Everything is looked at through the lens of money/year. I prefer to look at things slightly differently. Imagine taking the amount earned per year * freedom (measured in an arbitrary way between 0-10) * enjoyment (also measured in an arbitrary way between 0-10). Let's look at a couple of examples:

- My uncle is a big-shot merger lawyer in Bangkok. He really wanted to be sports journalist but that ambition was stamped out of him by his father after he graduated. He earns a lot but he barely sleeps, is unhappily divorced, and sees his son in the UK less than my dad does. He readily admits that he hates what he does but, because of his massive financial commitments to his ex-wife and 3 privately-educated children, is unable to quit. I often wonder how different his life would have been if he'd have stuck with his desire to write about sports. So, for my uncle, here are my calculations:

Salary = 1,000,000
Freedom = 0.2
Enjoyment = 0.05

1,000,000 * 0.2 * 0.05 = 10,000

- My dad is an eye surgeon and works from 9-5, Mondays to Fridays. He has been woken up in the night 3 times during his entire career as a surgeon and each time was an over-reaction by a junior doctor. He is happily married and has plenty of time to play his French horn, come kitesurfing with me, travel, read, help my little brother build a go-kart, spend time with my mother, learn Italian and tend to his vegetable patch. What's more, when he goes to work he praised constantly by his patients and he absolutely loves what he does. Here's how my dad figures in my mind:

Salary = 200,000
Freedom = 5
Enjoyment = 9

200,000 * 5 * 9 = 9,000,000

This is obviously a very simplistic model but at least it takes into account two things that my friends' calculations don't:

1.) A year is not just a unit for figuring out your salary. It's a massive chunk of your time and time itself is a lot more subtle than a means to calculate remuneration. The balance of how one's time is spent is what constitutes freedom.

2.) Enjoying what you do is essential. As Elliott's post reminds us: What's the point in doing something you hate?

If you're in a job that you enjoy but doesn't allow you to watch your own children grow up then, in my opinion, that is a terrible restriction on your freedom. Similarly, if you do something you hate purely to enjoy your free time (i.e. - "living for the weekend") then that can never be fulfilling.

I think that all of my friends would appreciate my assertions in principle but very few people I know are really putting such a mentality into practice. These are just the lessons I've learnt indirectly from two men that have featured pretty heavily in my life.

I think that anyone starting an awesome startup is doing something they love and has a thirst for freedom which is stronger than your average human. Those two forces combined with a great business model should mean that the salary doesn't even feature in a hacker's mind. What's more important is creating something incredible that has money or value flowing through it. I guess it couldn't be further from the mentality of a wannabe "investment banker".