My dear child:
You would have taken the cash. Almost everyone does.
There’s a rapper who goes by the name 50 Cent (even I’ve heard of him). He was offered money to put his name on a new drink called Vitaminwater (even I’ve heard of it). He asked for a piece of the company instead. People thought it foolish. Cash is certain. A stake in some startup drink is a maybe. Then in 2007 a giant bought that company for more than four billion dollars, and his small slice paid out a reported hundred million. The men who grabbed the easy cash that year are long forgotten. He owned the thing.
This is the choice almost no one sees clearly. The wage feels safe because you can hold it today. The ownership feels risky because you have to wait. So people trade the thing that compounds for the thing that comforts, a whole career of it.
Remember this: a paycheck pays once. A piece pays when the whole thing sells. One feeds you this month. The other can change your family's name.
So the next time you're handed a sure little sum or a slice of something you believe in, slow down. Ask which one you'll still be glad you chose in twenty years.
It's the same choice if you ever build something of your own. A salary pays until the day you stop showing up. A business you own can keep paying your family long after you've stopped.
The cash is gone by Friday. The ownership is still working when you're old.
One thing I'd tell my younger self: I chased salaries for years before I understood that owners and earners live different lives.
From the bookshelf: "The Intelligent Investor" by Benjamin Graham. He taught that you're buying a piece of a business, not a ticker that moves. Owning beats renting, every time.
A question to sit with: Where could you ask for a piece instead of a paycheck? Hit reply and tell me. I read every one.
Yours sincerely,
