What if you like what you do? What if you're one of the lucky ones whose job happens to be his passion? If it were me, maybe I'd do it on my own time, or cut back to the pieces that I thoroughly enjoy so that I can also read a book or go out on family adventures. Just one thought process...

But, if I were to get the million dollars, I'd chuck the meetings. Yep, a maid and a cook would be in the cards for me as well as doing something on my own or with the WoLMs...

Susan, I would continue doing much of what I do even if I had a lot of dough. But I'd also do some other, damn cool stuff that would make it impossible for me to be in the office 60 hours a week like most of these execs are .....

True...like going on a Gonzo tour? :) I'd travel and take my daughter with me - educate her that way in addition to school. I'd also include lots of family time and as you say, try new things! You know, live life!

There is absolutely no way I'd work if I had that kind of money. And, all due respect to Susan, but anyone who has found his/her passion at work needs to get out a little more. Just my two cents.

Would I continue to write? Yes. But not work for someone writing their stuff.

I've already thought this through and I'd go back to school - audit anything and everything, and skip the tests. I still have test anxiety nightmares and I haven't been in school for 13 years!

When you're at that level, power and prestige are the drivers, and money is just one of many indicators -- the bigger the pile, the higher your status. And spending more time with your kids, or doing other cool things, do not add to your power or prestige.

Um, I just want to clarify my remarks about one's job being one's passion. I don't mean the "job" per say. For example, my brother-in-law loves rocks and exploration. He has found a niche where he as become an expert at locating gold, etc., for companies, which have led him on some fabulous journies, such as being on a ship when it crossed the equator. He loves this life and would find a way to do it as a hobby if he had a 9 to 5 job. However, he's been able to turn his passion into a career. It's the best of both worlds.

Work is the most reliable maker of meaning in our lives. I'm not saying people with money shouldn't work. I'm saying people with stupid amounts of money should have better ideas than to live out their lives in incredibly demanding corporate jobs.

And Ron, I know you agree: anyone in this world who is driven by earthly "prestige" is in for a sad surprise come hospice time, eh?

As for Power, it's only interesting--it should be only as interesting, anyway--as what one does with it.

Ron,

Not to mention that the bigger the pile gets the tendency is that your lifestyle and associated expenses also bigger...

* you eat out more and at more expensive restaurants (just look at Cescenszo, the boy has definitely graduated upward on the culinary scale over the past 10 years).

* more resorts/cruises/exotic travel as vacation destinations.

* you give more to your charities of choice, and go to more black tie, $100-a-plate fundraisers (or play in more $150 golf tournament fundraisers).

* you buy a much bigger/nicer house (and/or have a second or third home).

* your toys are much more expensive (plasma TV's, country club memberships, Harley motorcycles, sports cars, etc.)

* you put your kids into private schools and/or send them to top Ivy League colleges.

* and so on.

Before you know it, it's hard to step back and downsize that type of lifestyle. It's not impossible and many do it, it just adds to the complexity.

-- Craig

It's true, Craig. With all that wealth the scale of all the problems increases. I guess that's why they call them "trappings."

And, David, I agree completely, and I've seen many executives basically commit philosophical suicide in their quest for more power and prestige. They stop listening to anything that doesn't fit their crazy expectations, and there are plenty of people around them who constantly remind them of how right and how great they are, and the limo is always waiting the minute the corporate jet lands, and so on.

But I, I work in his factory
And I curse the life I'm livin'
And I curse my poverty
And I wish that I could be
Oh I wish that I could be
Richard Cory

Perhaps this money corrupts people's thinking. They forget that their ingenuity is what helped make them successful and they become trapped into their lifestyle, as Craig and Ron discussed. Yet they are afraid to "break out of the mold" due to the "acceptance factor". For example, my husband loves to work in the yard and does not care that the rest of the neighborhood thinks he is wacko for not having a hired lawn crew.

I knew a really rich kid when I was younger, and at a formative age saw the unhappiness and distrust of others that came from all that money.

I've always thought people should take half as much care not to make too much money as they do to make enough.

What is too much? Well, what is enough?

Susan,

Although I don't exactly "love" yard work your husband sounds like my kind of guy. My dad used to have a lawn crew years ago...me and my brothers so I guess it's in my blood.

Funny thing though, while I have a love-hate relationship with working in the yard around my home, I can't wait to get down to my hunting cabin and clear fields, cut grape vines, dig ditches, till soil for food plots, cut trees, etc. Which my wife is quick to point out whenever I feign some lame excuse to postpone getting something around the house done.

-- Craig

There is no such thing as having "too much money," David. The trick is, when you make it, not to keep it all. My husband and I have always tithed--given away to church and selected charities at least 10 percent of what we make. (We don't make tons, but we're comfortable.) If I won a cool mill in the lottery (the only way it's ever going to happen) I would do a few little things to our house, hold aside enough for another long trip to Italy, put a chunk in savings, and send all the rest to our friends in Kenya and Haiti and Guatemala and a nearby Indian reservation. That would be a blast!

As an aside, I believe many who think that rich people should be taxed more fiercely so that their money can be given to needy people would be surprised to learn what a huge percentage of their wealth rich people ALREADY give to needy people--voluntarily.

David,

Your mention of Jack Welch reminded me of this line from the TV show 30 Rock, compliments of Alec Baldwin's character Jack Donaghy:

"Do you know why jack Welch is the greatest leader since the pharaohs? Because he didn’t only involved himself in our work lives, but our personal lives as well. He introduced us to the finest booze, the most restrictive country clubs. He gave us the names of the most discreet private investigators to spy on our ex-wives. He held our hands during our triumphs and our Senate hearings."

Makes me chuckle every time.

Pretty good, Michael. Part of the pain of reading Jacked Up was the obvious and terrible completeness with which G.E. execs gave over their hours and their lives.

They were mesmerized by Welch. And if this speechwriter feller Bill Lane is any indication--and Welch's influence over HIS personal life was much less than on other execs'--he, like a long-ago war to sad old veterans gathered at the American Legion hall bar, remains the most exciting thing that ever happened in their lives.