What software developers need to do to earn $ 500,000 a year and this is an inspirational answer

"What do software developers need to do to earn $ 500,000 a year?" An interesting and straightforward question on the Quora forum because the income of $ 500,000 (about 11 billion VND) is a dream for anyone, even for a software developer who has income is better than other jobs.

Amin Ariana, a technology entrepreneur and former Google employee, gave the answer to this question. Ariana's answer to Quora not only addresses the issue that everyone cares about but also inspires people. Perhaps that is why it attracted more than 1 million views, and was upvote more than 16,000 times.

The problem is not $ 500,000

There is one point to clarify in this question, which is that there is no fixed "income" of $ 500,000 for engineers. Such unusually high incomes usually include salary and bonuses with limited stock (RSU).

In order to explain to everyone what to do to achieve this level of income, Ariana gave an allegory similar to the following:

A village needs to find people to supply water to the entire village. Two people came to ask for a "trial".

The first worker took two empty buckets, went to a nearby freshwater lake and filled two buckets with water. When he got there, he could supply water to about 20 people. On the way, he will drink some water and when he comes back he will take some other water to take home.

The second person took a shovel, a small cup and left somewhere. When he returned, he just took the cup without making the villagers disappointed. Even so, the old people in the village still trusted him and allowed him to continue his work, they also tossed him a bone to prevent starvation. The incident continued like this until one day, he returned to the village with the stream flowing continuously behind his back. Turns out, during that time, he dug a stream that led water from the lake to the village.

The second person made the first person removed from the job of bringing water to the villagers and had to go to another job.

The second person owns the stream and changes it to get the same valuable ownership in the village, usually a plot of land.

People inspire others

And Ariana also told another true story that he witnessed.

Last year, Ariana welcomed the new year with her wife in Monterey Bay. One day, while at the top of the observation deck, Ariana and his wife saw a guy who started digging a hole in the beach while others were busy playing and paying no attention to him. Ariana told her wife, in 30 minutes everyone will dig for that guy.

30 minutes later, he created a small stream of water from his sand castle (or maybe the moat) to the ocean. He was busy changing the slope of the water to protect the moat. Five minutes later, the children discovered what he was trying to do and started digging with him. After 10 minutes, several adults were attracted and rolled their hands with him. After 55 minutes, the foreigners also rushed to support the training. So in 60 minutes, this guy inspired 15 other people to finish the water together.

A small detail overlooked here, is that not all sweat works equally well. The second worker is ready to break some rules, accept risks and risks to create an automatic asset line for the village. In the meantime, the first mechanic chooses the safe way and is immediately paid with the value he creates.

It can be seen that the people the second mechanic represented (here, Google) accepted the risk, not profitable for years to establish a billion-dollar revenue stream.

Those who receive large RSU accounts are those:

1. Participate right from the first days and take responsibility in creating an important core value.
2. Participate in a side project but accidentally create value.
3. Leave the village to start building another village.
4. Obtain exclusive knowledge of a value stream in some way.

No risk, no success

In comments on Ariana's answer, some people said they had trouble turning the allegory into their reality or the parable did not really answer the question. Most of these comments are looking at the worldview of the first worker, pursuing "getting paid".

Ariana went on to come up with another true story to help people make a little more determination.

In May 2009, the first mechanic applied to a position at Twitter and was denied. By August 2009, he applied again to a position at Facebook and was again rejected. After two failed attempts, he decided to dig a stream of revenue from the Ho Nhan Nhan region's communication needs to the Village of Enterprises - including both companies that rejected him, the same way The second person has chosen.

On the way, he inspired 55 other people to join. Older people in other villages also gave them some bones. Initially 250,000 USD, then increased to 8 million USD and when the success of the revenue stream becomes clear, the money they receive from Sequoia Capital is up to 50 million USD.

Three hours before Ariana wrote this answer (2014), CNN made a announcement about Facebook's acquisition of WhatsApp in February 2014 (created by the first mechanic - Brian Acton - after follow the second mechanic.

After five years of "digging a revenue stream" for Facebook's business, Brian Acton has become a stakeholder in Facebook, where he was previously denied a job.

According to you 55 employees, who participated in "digging revenue streams" will need to negotiate to get a salary of USD 500,000 a year at Facebook? Or do you think Facebook is afraid that they will leave the village as soon as the check is signed so they will be forced to pay larger salaries and invest their capital?

The second mechanic did not compare or negotiate the wage because he sold unpaid wealth and did not sell the service to the village (or that enterprise). Basically, the village had no choice but to deal with him to compensate in accordance with the value of the wealth he brought. The number of zeroes added after the $ symbol will no longer matter when water comes to the village.

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