David Vital wrote: My frame of reference > must just be so dramatically different from a lot of the > other's here. I don't understand what all the griping is > about. I read a quote in an article the other day that just > rings totally true to me. "Nobody is worth $200,000 a year. > NOBODY. " If you can get it, more power to you. But if you > were getting that or $100,000 a year and suddenly you can't and > the only thing you can get is a 70K or 80 K job... Even in > another area.. That's astounding to me that you would be so > upset . But maybe it's why you made that kind of money and I > never have. You believe you can and I'm smiling all the way > to the bank with less. I guess the picture all depends on the > angle you are viewing it from.
Well, first of all, I never said anything about them being upset. Those people who I referred to are simply making an unemotional, yet perfectly logical choice, which is to leave the industry. Simply put - people are going to follow the path that they think will lead them to their life goals, and if networking looks unpromising, then they will choose something else. Nobody said anything about being upset. Second of all, I emphatically disagree that nobody is worth $200,000 year. I agree that not many people are worth that. But to say that nobody is worth that is simply false. Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant, for example, are worth that and far more, simply because people are willing to cough up for very expensive tickets to see them play. They are directly responsible for earning boatloads of money for the Lakers so it is entirely fair that they get paid well. With apologies to Mr. Duncan, Shaq and Kobe are the 2 best players in basketball and they deserve to be paid accordingly. Or consider the salesmen at your company. Those star salesmen who are really bringing in the bacon deserve to be paid very well. (Those salesmen who are bringing in nothing deserve to be paid nothing). I know a bunch of salesmen who make over a quarter-million a year - but that's because they are directly responsible for bringing in millions of dollars of business into their companies. We are not talking about some secretary or some janitor that just so happen to be working at a startup that gets big and now think that their mere presence means they deserve to be millionaires - we're talking about people who are directly responsible for the success of the company in that they are extremely difficult to replace with somebody else (heck, Shaq is essentially impossible to replace), and for which their presence is directly linked to the success of the company (how many championships would the Lakers have won without Shaq and Kobe?). The point is, some people really are worth massive amounts of money. Not a lot, obviously. But some. Some people really do have a set of unique skills that makes them unusually valuable in the market. Tom Hanks is arguably the best actor of our generation. Barry Bonds may be the best baseball player in history. These guys deserve all the financial success that they can get. Let's take it to the networking field. Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn deserve all the success and accolades they can get. After all, they are arguably the 2 most important network engineers in history, for they directly invented much of the underlying technology of the Internet. If there are network engineers who deserve $200,000 salaries, it's these 2 guys. I think those guys are doing fairly well for themselves, though. Message Posted at: http://www.groupstudy.com/form/read.php?f=7&i=71417&t=71143 -------------------------------------------------- FAQ, list archives, and subscription info: http://www.groupstudy.com/list/cisco.html Report misconduct and Nondisclosure violations to [EMAIL PROTECTED]