ZERO” to “EIGHT FIGURE” Salary
“Earning More Money” and “Living A Better Life” is one dream that most people pursue. Every corporate professional has a deep desire insider him/her to reach the so called “Eight Figure” salary level (in INR terms) in his/her career as early as possible. Those who see themselves far placed from it even develop some sense of antipathy towards people who are members of this “Crore Club”. Still, the race to reach there continues vigorously is every corporate set-up.
In my journey as a Success Coach, this one goal which almost all corporate professionals follow, has intrigued me. With an intent to help as many people as possible to achieve this goal and build the sense of Pride and Achievement associated with it, I have decided to create a “Blueprint for Success” through a series of blog posts and YouTube videos. The idea is to idiotproof this journey in a manner where all the people who are sincere, hardworking and have a desire to grow and achieve more can be helped by crafting out a structured journey for them which they can follow over a period of time and to a large extent get their desired outcome.
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Having achieved this goal quite early in my career personally and thereafter being able to help multiple people become a part of this elite Crore Club, I have been able to pick lots of clues which can work in one’s favour provided he/she is consciously working towards this goal. The biggest problem I have found in corporate professionals is – they have defined goals for everything else that they are working on for their company except goals for their own personal journey. They see their growth in incremental terms – if I am earning Rs X today, I will always aspire for X + a certain %age. This mindset stunts their growth.
We all understand that corporates are organized like a pyramid. As you move up, there is less space. The so-called Crore Club sits at the top, so there is even further less space there. As everyone is trying to move upwards, not all can succeed. By rule, some people will start falling from the side. That’s why it is called the rat race. Even if you try to stabilize yourself somewhere in between, people from bottom will start pushing you and you will have no choice but to either try to move up or fall by the side. It is not an easy game. Unless you understand the rules of this game well, and by rules I mean the unwritten norms of corporate success; you have limited chance to take a shot at the crore club.
There is another problem that corporate professionals face. This is the problem of defining their “Fair Market Value”. By fair market value I mean the ideal salary that one should get in the market. All corporate professionals as a rule feel that their “Market Value” should keep appreciating as they spend more time in the corporate world. Their salary should keep increasing with time. They tend to miss one key point here – Salary or Market Value is not just defined by numbers of years of experience, it is also defined by your ability to contribute to the organization you work for. The fundamental principle of “If you keep doing what you have been doing, you will keep getting what you have been getting” comes into play here.
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The key question that one needs to understand is – How do I add more value to the company where I am working as I spend more time there? People tend to become a “Slave of Routine” and keep performing the standard tasks that their job requires them to do. In their process their learning completely stops which affects their ability to contribute at a higher level as they spend more time in their jobs. Even when they want to leave their organization and apply for a job outside, their evaluation by the new organization gets done basis on the jobs which they were performing earlier. As a result, they are able to only negotiate an incremental growth (X + some %age) with the new company. Very few people understand this principle of Fair Market Value and what are the drivers to grow it over a period time.
Finally, the most important factor that comes in the way of corporate professionals entering the Crore Club is – people who are already sitting in the crore club. Why would they allow others to enter this elite club? As the space is limited at the top, one would always fear that if more people enter this club, there is risk to the current members of getting thrown out. On top of that, since people sitting at the top are responsible for making all the policies and rules, they make it more and more difficult for others to reach there. Some of the factors they easily control are, deciding the rate of increment, number of promotions, finalizing the organization structure, etc.
As a continuation to this challenge, we also need to understand how one’s journey from “Zero” to an “Eight Figure” Salary takes place. When you enter the corporate world, you are at the bottom of the pyramid. You are very excited to learn and contribute and in return you are given a %age increment at the end of the year. This phenomenon of “%age increase” needs to be elaborated a bit more to make you understand the difficulties associated with it. I have found that this principle is the biggest challenge one faces in his/her journey towards an eight figure salary. How? Let me explain. This principle of %age increment makes you feel very good by giving you a 10% or sometimes even a 20% increase. Assuming your starting annual salary to be Rs 5 lacs per annum, what you get is Rs 1 Lac even at a 20% increase. If you start calculating this way and even at times considering your salary increase at 30% or even 40%, you can very well realise how difficult it is to reach 1 Crore and how many years it will take.
The fundamental flaw with this principle is – it neglects the base salary and applies a standard percentage increase to everyone irrespective of how much increase they are receiving in absolute terms. Imagine you getting 1 Lac at 20% increase and someone with 50 Lacs yearly salary getting 5 Lacs increase even with a 10% increase. The game itself is flawed and is a clear example of how all the monies only flow towards the top and middle of the pyramid and people sitting at the bottom only get a pittance.
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Having understood some of the core challenges associated with your journey towards an Eight Figure salary, it is critical that now you work towards breaking this spiral, cracking this code. In my subsequent blogs, I will keep picking up these challenges one by one and will try to find solutions which are easy to implement and can help you in making your journey towards the Crore Club easy and enjoyable. Well, it is not going be easy in real sense, but if you keep following every step that I would take your through, you would definitely start seeing some concrete results.
Success leaves clues and that is why it is always better to learn from someone who has done it before. Be with me for my next few blogs and see how this journey unfolds and transforms your life.
Bon Voyage!!
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In complete agreement with what you have said. Organisations work with a slave mentality when it comes to compensations. The performing & less performing get put in the same bracket leading to demoitivation and finally exit.