The Hidden Factor That Determines Career Pay and Growth (It’s Not Passion)
When I was in my early 20s, I believed that passion was the single most important factor in choosing a career. I thought:
- If I work in an area I love, I’ll stay motivated.
- Even if it doesn’t pay well, I’ll figure it out.
- And if I make it to the “top” of the industry, I’ll be fine.
My passion was sports. I wasn’t an athlete, but I wanted to work in the sports industry. I was willing to grind it out, even working for free to get experience—just like countless others trying to break in.
What I didn’t realize back then was that passion alone isn’t enough. There are other forces that shape your career trajectory—forces that are much bigger than your own motivation. Over time, I came to understand three of them: geography, competition, and value creation.
The Geography Factor
Where you work matters more than I ever imagined. Certain industries are highly concentrated in just a handful of cities. Sports is one of them—there are only so many teams, league offices, and opportunities.
And this goes the same for other industries too. Tech has Silicon Valley. Finance has New York and London. These hubs create dense ecosystems of opportunity. I wasn’t in any of those cities—and that alone limited my options, no matter how passionate or capable I was.
The Competition Factor
I underestimated the difficulty of making it to the top. Sports attracts young, passionate people who are willing to work for free just for a chance. The supply of labor is endless, and the demand is limited. That imbalance keeps pay low, even for higher-level positions.
The Value Creation Factor
This was my biggest realization.
In sports, the core value is created by athletes. Without NBA players, there is no NBA. That’s why they earn unbelievable salaries. League office staff and executives add value, but they’re not the reason fans buy tickets or tune in to watch. Even top roles at the league office pay a fraction of what you might expect.
I remember seeing a job posting for a director-level position at the NFL league office. The salary? $100,000–$160,000. Sounds decent, until you compare it with other industries.
A Palantir engineer intern makes about $120,000.
A Jane Street engineer intern makes $250,000.
At first, I thought: that’s just tech and finance vs. sports. Different industries, different economics. But then it hit me: those engineers are part of the core value creation in their companies.
Palantir is a software company. Without engineers, it doesn’t exist. Jane Street is a quantitative trading firm. Without technologists and quants building the algorithms, there’s no business.
In other words, engineers in those firms are the equivalent of NFL players. They’re the ones driving the value engine.
A Story That Stuck With Me
Dharmesh Shah, CTO and cofounder of HubSpot, once told a story that hammered this point home for me. Early in his career, he worked as a tech in a traditional industry. He quickly became the best at what he did. But a senior colleague told him: “It won’t matter how good you are in this industry because tech isn’t the main value driver here.”
That was a wake-up call for him—and it became one for me too.
The Big Lesson
If you want outsized returns in your career, it’s not enough to be good. You need to be good at something that sits at the core of value creation in your industry.
- In sports, that’s being an athlete.
- In tech, that’s being an engineer or founder.
- In finance, that’s being a trader, quant, or engineer.
- In healthcare, that’s being a physician or innovator.
- In entertainment, that’s being the artist or creator.
Everyone else can still have fulfilling careers, but the leverage—and the money—will always flow to the core.
Looking Back, Looking Forward
If I could go back to my 20s, I wouldn’t tell myself to abandon passion. Passion matters. It keeps you going when things get tough. But I would tell myself this:
“Make sure your passion intersects with value creation. That’s where you’ll find both meaning and upside.”
That’s the framework I carry with me now—whether I’m evaluating industries, jobs, or even side projects. And it’s the one piece of advice I’d give to anyone just starting out.