I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that most of us already chose "another way". I know I'm not ultra-wealthy (unless my wife is hiding some stuff under the mattress), nor do I recall winning any world championships (unless I've forgotten something).

3. I'm happy where I am in life.
4. I'd go live under a rock---people suck.
5. Both.
6. ....

Even if you are content with what you have, you might still have other dreams

I guess I sort of agree. I can't really answer that. I don't think those two items are mutually exclusive. $15m is an awful lot and would put folks in very rare company. In general, I believe you can have a combination of family, athletic, professional, and spiritual success/satisfaction all at the same time.

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David
* Ironman for Life! (Blog) * IM Everyday Hero Video * Daggett Shuler Law *
Disclaimer: I have personal and professional relationships with many athletes, vendors, and organizations in the triathlon world.

I voted for World Championship. $15 M today does not make one super wealthy. It is a nice sum but after taxes on selling your stake and depending where you live you are not really going to be able to spread around much wealth. The present value of lifetime earnings after earning the championship for a reasonably motivated WC could easily be greater than $15 M after tax, which makes the WC more valuable than the other option. Now if the number was something more like $50 or $100M I would answer differently.

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Andrew Inkpen

Money is just money, you can lose it quickly if you're not careful. If you are good with your money, you will die someday and leave it to someone who will probably go out and blow it on something you would have never spent it on. A World Championship stays with you forever, nobody can take it away (unless WADA has some dirt on you and motivation against you).

but what if you do this since it starts at age 22, work 8 years cash out with $15 million at age 30, work hard for 8 years, win the World Championships at age 38. I'd think most upcoming pros would love to have a $15 million nest egg while trying to train full time

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Boots
Fleet Feet Rochester, NY
Fleet Feet Buffalo, NY
YellowJacket Racing, Rochester, NY

Of course, but how many 22 year olds know enough about anything to start and build a business that will be worth $15MM in 8 years?

Zuckerberg has done ok :)

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Boots
Fleet Feet Rochester, NY
Fleet Feet Buffalo, NY
YellowJacket Racing, Rochester, NY

OK, so there's 1 example. But can he ride/run/swim too?

The funny part is Zuck was training for tri for a while. Not sure if he has Frodo genetics though

Hello Herbert and All,

Herbert wrote: Even if you are content with what you have, you might still have other dreams.


Right on!

That is what I was getting at .......... as a young person you may have a dream that excludes the binary choices offered in the header ...... of wealth or world (sport) championship .... there is only so much life time alloted to us.

And that dream may be more fullfilling to the dreamer than other choices that are available.

For instance ...... being a fighter pilot in the USMC ..... Those were great times with great people and excluded other choices at a young age.

There are many dreams ...... and the drive to achieve your dream can be intense and the risks accepted can be great.

The article below speaks to athletes .... but the acceptance of risk in the drive to achieve a dream applies to many different dreams.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/...-for_b_11331742.html

Excerpt:

"What I find most interesting are the values athletes have to plug into the calculation of whether to participate.

These considerations end up being relevant to us all: Would you risk your life for a gold medal? How much do we sacrifice pursuing our biggest goals — our equivalent of Olympic gold?

How much happiness will we get from achieving those goals?

You’d think most people would say, “Serious illness or death or endangering my future children couldn’t be worth it; no one would sacrifice that for a gold medal.”

Except they would.

When I was in grad school, I read about a sports physician who asked elite athletes if they would take a drug that would win them a gold medal but also kill them in five years (See “Goldman’s dilemma“).
About half said they would enter such a deal. Some later surveys confirmed this result, and many others have undermined it.
But we know from the sports headlines that some number of world-class athletes have risked health and life to succeed (even with the added risk of having their success discounted if discovered)."

https://en.wikipedia.org/.../Goldman%27s_dilemma
1984

2013



It looks like WADA is making a difference.

And worth noting ..... even working hard and achieving your dream does not guarantee a long life or happiness.


https://www.newyorker.com/...12/05/21/finish-line

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Cheers, Neal

+1 mph Faster

I laughed at a similar point made yesterday and I'll do so here again. I don't really "know", but this seems like an absolutely absurd assertion to me--that a "reasonably" motivated--meaning an average WC winner who few us remember right now, can make $15 million off of that victory, let alone more than $15 million. I don't think so.

15m isn’t stupid money, but I doubt many triathletes (world champ or not) would ever see that kind of cash in the bank. To be fair, I don’t know what those guys/gals make, so I might be wrong. I assume they aren’t making more than a million a year or so when at the top of their game, and that isn’t likely to last many years. Look at all the professional athletes in the high paying sports and few of them would ever see that kind of $.

15m lump sum earning 5% (pretty conservative), would generate $750k a year, over $60k per month. That puts you solidly in the 1 percent club in the us. Not bezos or gates $, but enough to be pretty excessive in life if you want.

As for the $ vs the championship thing, that’s a tough one. Something to be said for being the best at something, but being a world champ doesn’t ensure happiness and neither does $15m in the bank. I’d probably opt for the $, because I don’t think I’d enjoy the publicity/attention of being a world champ.

I think *how* you make that $15 Mil matters a lot. If you do some shady Ponzi scheme shit and bank $15 Million, meh, easy come easy go. But if you take it like the poll is specifically worded: "Work hard for 8yr, build up a business and exit with $15 million", that is a whole different story. Regardless of whether you're starting at 22 or 32, if you roll up your sleeves, actually BUILD something that exits for $15 million in 8 years, that process and accomplishment makes you a whole lot more valuable than just that $15 mil. You are in a much more exclusive club than the pool of professional athletes that have won a world championship (branching out beyond just "Triathlon world champion", whatever that means). And not only is that an impressive personal accomplishment, but if you were able to exit something that YOU BUILT WITH YOUR BARE HANDS for $15 million, that indicates that you built something that other people value, a lot, like at least $15 million dollars worth. Creating value to add to the universe is a special kind of achievement that stays with you, and can be used to perpetuate your future fame, fortune, legacy, however you wish to steer your life.


I know this gets away from the hypothetical question that was initially asked that prompted the poll, just thought it was worth digging in to the fact that if you *earn* $15 million, that value usually expands far beyond just that cash dollar amount.

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http://trainingwheelsrequired.wordpress.com
@KellyNCollier

So, by your reasoning, Zuckerberg created 1 or 2 billion dollars of "value" and so that's a "special" kind of achievement??? Sorry but IMO Facebook is no great achievement, just another time waster. Generally, I think your idea that "creating value" is something special is just BS. Some inventions have much, much more value than others.

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

A World Championship is something you'll always cherish but the money extend to others so I'd take that. 20 years ago I was part of an online gaming team and we were ranked #1 in the world for two months. Beating the #1 team was an amazing feeling and even to this day I reminisce on it.