by J L Petriesan

Created on: December 05, 2008   Last Updated: October 28, 2010

A consultant? It's the guy who asks for your watch when you ask what time it is, tells you, then pockets the watch.

What's a corporate executive? Surely you have read Dilbert, with the pointy-haired boss, the evil director of human resources and the soulless CEO.

Heck of a choice we have here. But which is the better career path, consultant or corporate executive?

We will talk about the differences in the nature of the two beasts in a minute, but when you boil it all down, we are talking about which way is more likely in our having grabbed the brass ring in the end, right?

Here is the cold hard truth, and the one that will probably doom this article to the dustbin of the category: there are not many who will grab the brass ring, no matter the field. Is the ring defined as the top 10% of wage earners in the US (about $100,000 a year) or the top 1% (between $250,000 and $1 million a year, depending on who is doing the number crunching). Whatever, the answer is the same: few grab it in the end.

To achieve this usually requires working more than 40 hours per week. One friend of mine, who was the CFO of a large fast food organization made in excess of $5 million one year, but he had averaged more than 80 hours a week for twenty years or so. Worth it? Depends on you. To him, it was. He liked work more than family, church, friends. It was just the way he was wired. Me, not so much. At least that is what I tell myself, that the reason I never made $5 mill a year was I wouldn't make the life-style choices necessary. It beat saying I couldn't have done it.

But here's the thing: he already made it to the top of the heap in the consulting business before he entered the corporate field. He was making in excess of $400,000 a year in the 1980's as a financial consultant before, amazingly, quitting and walking away, to become a division controller of the company he was eventually the CFO at (eventually meant less than 15 years).

Those very few, and they are a select few, capable of making it to the top are capable of making it to the top in just about any arena. The common characteristics are extreme intelligence, justified self-confidence, creativity, charisma, strong work ethic, vision, leadership, and desire.

The consulting life is one of uncertainty. You must be able and willing to respond to the needs of the client on a moment's notice. You must be able to mult-task. You will probably be working with people at least as intelligent as you are and for most of the time,

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