Employee to Millionaire - here’s how!
May 15, 2024
I read a story where the owner of an Australian company was quoted saying:
“There are going to be a hundred people (employees) who are going to be millionaires today”
I dug into the details, and realised that many of these people were not senior executives, (although some were), but mostly they were employees.
Product Managers, Marketers, Technical Engineers, Compliance Managers, Sales Team, etc.
The company?
Atlassian, which is now a tech giant in Australia that went public and literally made over a hundred employees more than a million dollars each.
The more I looked into this, the more I realised how common it was.
Steve Ballmers may be the most ludicrous example of this.
He was the 30th employee at Microsoft, and was, at the time, a Business Manager.
(Later in his career he became the CEO and is now worth over $100B - staggering!)
In Australia, we have seen this happen over and over again.
Afterpay, Canva, and many more employees from these companies have done the same.
How they did it…
After diving into lots of stories I found a consistent trend.
The path to being a “rich employee” is to work for a fast growing, early phase company, who offers shares as a part of their remuneration package.
You don’t need to be an executive, but there are a few things you’ll likely need to do:
1. Find the right company
The company you need to find should be a company that is fast-growing, or has incredible upside to grow. If there is no room for serious growth, you probably won’t have a big payday.
2. Negotiate to get shares
The more shares the better you are essentially investing in the business), and you’re betting that the share price will have a big upside. Without shares, you won’t get anything more than the salary they pay you.
3. You need to be useful
As the company grows, so will your position. That old saying, ‘a rising tide lifts all boats’.
That is mostly true for early employees who work for companies that grow fast. If they see your potential (plus effort and effectiveness), they will likely promote you as the company grows.
You’ll want a bigger share offering each time that occurs, by way of incentives each milestone the company makes.
Keep the shares
As long as the business grows, your share price will too. The benefit of being an employee is that you’ll likely have a better view on its growth potential than any outsider.
The risks
There are lots, so it’s best to have a strategy to navigate through these risks.
You may choose to take a pay cut in order to get more shares.
You’ll likely have minimal time for anything else, fast growing businesses often require a big time commitment, with all the activity that’s created as it grows.
Also, there are no guarantees the business will keep growing. So many businesses have failed as a result of growing too fast too early.
Culturally, there is a lot that can go wrong when a company tries to increase staff in a short period of time.
It’s also not always easy to sell shares.
What should I do?
If you’re up for some calculated risks, you’ll need to start by trying to find companies that meet the criteria.To do this you can:
1. Speak to as many recruiters in areas with likely big growth.
Mining, tech, government contractors, energy, medicine, just to name a few.
2. Research Job platforms
Seek has the option to search via “Enter Keywords”. When I searched for “fast-growing” within “Information & Communication Technology” it resulted in 369 jobs.
3. Do you love a brand and notice they are expanding?
Often we fall in love with a brand, and everyone else does too. I remember getting an Oodie (don't judge me!), through a friend who was raving about it, I loved it and wondered why others hadn’t noticed. 3 months later they exploded in Australia.
Once you’ve selected a short list of those you’d like to apply for - apply away!
Ensure to include in your application your long term aspirations for supporting company growth (they’ll want to know you’re an invested employee).
The crazy thing is, it’s possible to become financially “rich” as an employee. The path might not always be straight forward, but there is no reason why you can’t use your time at work to make millions.
