The head of a $2 trillion dollar investment fund quit his job and it all started with his daughter refusing to brush her teeth.
In January 2014, Mohamed El-Erian resigned as chief executive of PIMCO. It came as a shock to not only the finance world but to El-Erian’s closest friends and co-workers. In 2011, El-Erian pocketed $100 million bucks so quitting probably wasn’t the easiest thing to do.
El-Erian finally came clean about the entire situation in an essay in Worth magazine. He didn’t quit because of any shady dealings or health concerns. He quit because his 10-year-old daughter provided a “huge wake-up call” one night while the two argued about her brushing her teeth. She stopped yelling, walked out of the room, and returned soon after with a piece of paper and handed it to her old man.
“It was a list that she had compiled of her important events and activities that I had missed due to work commitments,” he wrote.
“The list contained 22 items, from her first day at school and first soccer match of the season to a parent-teacher meeting and a Halloween parade.
“I felt awful and got defensive: I had a good excuse for each missed event! Travel, important meetings, an urgent phone call, sudden to-do.
“But it dawned on me that I was missing an infinitely more important point … I was not making nearly enough time for her.”
Ouch.
So El-Erian quit, took a couple part-time consulting positions, and now spends way more time with his kid.
H/T 9 News