Originally Posted by Unregistered

You are one of the very few people here who can distinguish between the two. I call them acquired and inherent earning power.

Acquired power is conferred upon a person by his training; whereas inherent power is inborn. One needs to depend on his acquired power only if his inherent power is lower.

Those engineering-trained VPs whom you mention above obviously have inherent abilities that have outgrown their engineering background. For such people, it doesn't really matter what they studied, be it engineering, finance, or even mathematics!

Obviously, the CEO of Keppel Corp MR. Choo Chiau Beng, who appeared in the papers recently extolling the virtues of his engineering training, has inherent ability far beyond the acquired power conferred by his engineering training. It would be quite amusing if anyone, after reading his interview, thinks that studying engineering leads to jobs that pay $11.75 million per year!

On the other hand, for engineers with low or even negative inherent earning power, getting an engineering job that pays a five-figure annual sum would be better than running their own company to the ground.