King  Gary 

I read an article on the New York Times late at night yesterday, which discusses how some millionaires in Silicon Valley ‘don’t feel rich’, even when they have a multi-million dollar roof over their heads. The response that the article has gotten is not very surprising, containing a mix of disgust, confusion, and outrage.

It’s no secret that many will feel a twinge of anger to know that millionaires, meaning people with, oh, $2.5 million in the bank, for instance, are still continuously worried about their financial well-being. Part of this stems from jealousy, which is natural, and part of it comes from the fact that you can’t help but feel sorry for these people who continue to work 70-80 hour work weeks even when they can retire to a life of relative comfort.

On the other hand, after reading several posts talking about how they basically “can’t possibly imagine how one could continue to work so much when they have millions of dollars in the bank”, I was reading a paragraph in a particular post, which says:

It is disappointing that the NYT article is so one-sided in its decision to portray rich SV folks in such a shallow light. Not that what they wrote isn’t true, and not that I feel any differently. I just have a hunch there are at least a few people reading that piece, feeling frustrated that their charitable efforts, good work ethics, family values, etc are being ignored. Unfortunately, I think the article was all-too-easy to write and the story they tell was all-too-easy to substantiate.

I would have to agree with this, in that I’m sure there are an equal number of Valley millionaires who have since retired after getting their fair share of wealth.

It seems to me that the people who were profiled in the NY Times article are the type of people who simply enjoy working (i.e. workaholics). People with these characteristics exist everywhere, and it’s not surprising that the elite group of millionaires would have its fair share of them.

If put in very simple terms, I would say that there’s one group of wealthy Valley people who got their millions by being at the right place at the right time (i.e. Broadcast.com and Mark Cuban comes to mind, which sold to Yahoo! for $5.7 billion; the website is now defunct), and then there’s another group of people who would work as hard as possible no matter how much money they had, which I would say are the people who were profiled in this article.

It’s actually entertaining and annoying at the same time to see people from the Valley who continuously strive to make their first million (I’ve seen my fair share), maybe because their neighbor has reached the $10 million ‘milestone’. Up here in Toronto, at least in the neighborhood that I live in, people are very down-to-Earth. I keep my stress levels low by only talking ‘business’ when I’m at my computer and at certain times of the day; I wouldn’t know how to manage my life otherwise. (The next time I meet someone who is a workaholic and expects me to be one, I’m going to tell them to ‘chill the f**k down’.)

Anyways, I find it disturbing, and yet, refreshing, to find that at least these people are people who are deserving of their millions, and who (at least claim that they) enjoy working 70-80 work weeks. I know I sure as hell wouldn’t!

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