Rule#42 Rule of Pyramid (RUPYM)

The rule

The pyramid which was built by the ancient Egyptian is one of the Seven Wonders of the World. One of the reasons this building is so great is due to its symmetry, size, complexity with hidden passages and tombs inside them, everlasting till today and much more. Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the pyramid is the lesson that we can learn from the structure, how closely the structure relates to this modern life. Consider that the pyramid structure is the exact structure companies all over the world are being formed.

            A company will have one CEO, a few COOs, more VPs, even more GMs, many AGMs, many more managers and so on. This is indeed the structure of a pyramid with large number of people working at the bottom and fewer positions available as we move towards the top. Since the reward from a company will flow from the top to the bottom, what it means is that the higher your hierarchy in the pyramid structure, the better is the reward. Therefore when working in a company, you should always aim to climb the company structure towards the top. However, at the same time since limited spaces are available towards the top you will face stiffer competition as you climb the pyramid structure.

What is this rule

            When starting your work with a company, you will most likely start at the bottom. In order to reap the best rewards with that company, you must aim to climb your way towards the top. In other words, you must aim for a promotion. As a general rule companies will promote workers who are hardworking, competent, skillful, knowledgeable, and contribute a lot to the company. However even with these qualities, sometimes it might not be enough to get promoted. There are many factors for a promotion such as availability of higher posts, your relationship with your boss, the company policy, and competition with your colleagues.

            In this life no matter how talented, hardworking, knowledgeable and skillful we are, there will always be people who do no recognize our talent. This is because this life is not a perfect world. There will always be people who are not perfect in this life including ourselves. If we are faced with this situation, just ignore those people who do not recognize our good qualities. For every one person who does not recognize our good qualities, there will be thousands more people who will recognize our good qualities. Even if the whole world does not recognize our good qualities, leave the reward of our hard work to God. God indeed is the best in giving rewards.

            If you are stuck at one level of the pyramid structure for a long time i.e. there is no promotion for you for a long time, you need to look deep into yourself for the causes of that. It is easy to pinpoint someone else and blame him/her for your lack of promotion but the truth is people will never change. It is you who must change in order to get the necessary promotion. You need to look into yourself and improve those areas that you lack in order to be a better worker. It could be anything from your image to your relationship with the boss to your communication skills etc.

            If despite all of your efforts such as working hard, improving your knowledge, improving your relationship with the boss etc you are still stuck in one level of pyramid structure, then maybe it is time to look at other pyramids. Perhaps the problem is not with you but with the pyramid you are working with. There are infinitely many pyramids out there with different remuneration scheme. You can even build your own pyramid. You can do this by being a self-employed or a business owner. Being self-employed means you run your own business. It might be a small pyramid with only one person i.e. you but you are the sole benefiter for all the rewards related to your pyramid. Even better if you can be a business owner where you create a company and hire people to run your business. That means you own a slightly larger pyramid compared to being self-employed. Having a larger pyramid i.e. you as the owner and many people running your company will increase your potential of better returns compared to a small pyramid with just you at the top. Having people working for you also means you have the potential for passive income since all the work will be done by other people. You can also invest your money in a company or stock market or unit trust to become a co-owner of that pyramid.  So not only you can work in a pyramid but you can also create a pyramid or co-own a pyramid by investing your money.

How to implement this rule

In the beginning of this chapter, I encourage everyone to be involved in business in order to become rich. Now you see why being in business i.e. self-employed, business owner and investor are generally better than being an employee. This is because a self-employed, business owner and investor are owners/co-owners of their respective pyramids. They are always at the top. Therefore they will reap the largest rewards when their pyramids are successful and generate a lot of profits. It is true that the owners also bear the highest risk related to their pyramid. With this risk comes the potential return. As I mentioned in the beginning of this chapter, you don’t have to start your business big or invest a lot of your money in a business. You can always start your business small. You can even do your business part-time while being an employee as long as there is no conflict of interest and a long as you do not spend your time on your business during office hours.

The second part of this rule is to choose your pyramid(s) carefully. There are many types of pyramid(s) in this world with different industry, policy, model, work culture, benefits and rewards. In our lifetime, we might be limited to work in only a few pyramid(s) / companies but if we are happy working in a company then that is probably the greatest rewards in our life. If you are not happy working with your company and think you can do better working somewhere else, you are always free to change your pyramid. There are infinitely many pyramids out there so choose the pyramid to work in according to your degree, skills, competencies, interest and last but not least work culture, benefits and rewards. The world is a large place. Pyramids / companies exist all over the world. If you are willing to migrate, you can take advantage of the high salary and better currency exchange rate offered by the pyramids outside of your country.     

The benefit of this rule

Choosing your career and the company / pyramid to work in is probably the most important decision in your life. Based on some estimate by the time we reach the age of 70, we will spend around 70% of our time working. This is probably true if you consider we work for 8 hours every day for 5-days week from the age of 20+ to the age of 50+ or even 60+. There are many things to consider when choosing your pyramid. The most obvious is the salary but there are other things to consider such as the following questions: do you need to work long hour? Is the job stressful? Can you expect promotion in reasonable timeframe? Does the pyramid provide any medical insurance to you and your family? Perhaps the most important point of all is the job satisfaction that you received when working in that pyramid.

We might choose our career based on our interest and our university degree and this will probably be fixed in our early 20s after we graduated from university. However, for example even if you have a degree in engineering you can always change your career into something different. You can choose to work in the marketing line or the education line as a lecturer or teacher and you could also choose the business line either being a business owner or working to handle a business. With these many career choices there are as many pyramids out there to choose from. There is no right or wrong answer on the career and pyramid that you choose but you have to beware of the comfort-zone trap. You are trapped in the comfort zone when you feel really comfortable working in a pyramid and are reluctant to change your pyramid due to the risk and uncertainty involved in the new pyramid. Perhaps you are working in a good pyramid but by being in the comfort zone you will never consider changing your pyramid and you therefore will miss out on the possibility of changing your pyramid from a good one to a great one.

More about this rule

            Our choices in this life determine where we are today. In our life sometimes we experienced missed opportunities and bad choices and this includes missing the opportunity to choose a better pyramid or making a bad choice when choosing a pyramid in our life. Opportunities will come and go. There is no point of crying over spilt milk. This is a free world. You need to look where you are now and what you want to be in the future. If the pyramid you are working now can fulfill your wish then by all means stay in that pyramid. If otherwise then start looking at other pyramids out there. You can choose as many pyramid(s) to work in within your lifetime and I pray that you will find the pyramid you are looking for that can make you a happier, healthier and wealthier person.