CEOs Aren't Rockstars. Stop Paying Them Like They Are

Entrepreneur

26-06-2025

If a CEO can walk away richer while the company lays off thousands and loses money and value—what exactly are we rewarding?
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
You're reading Entrepreneur Middle East, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.
There's a CEO I met once—let's just say the name was well known. What shocked me wasn't the private jet or the outrageous spending perks. It was the number: US$140 million. That was his annual pay package—in a year when the company lost money, its share price tumbled, and its market cap was less than US$300 million.
Let that sink in.
We live in a time when the average worker is being told to tighten their belt, accept layoffs, or "pivot" their skills. Meanwhile, the same executives who preside over declining revenue, shrinking market share, and mass firings, are cashing in 8-figure checks without a hint of shame or any accountability.
The Numbers Are Obscene
When I was younger, my grandfather would tell me: "If a man makes more than 100 times what the average employee makes, he's not a good leader."
Today, CEOs are pulling in not 100 times, but sometimes 10,000 times the median employee pay.
Yes, we have ESG reporting, Environmental, Social and Governance, where companies are required to disclose the CEO-to-median pay ratio. But disclosure without accountability is performative. The ratios are exposed—and ignored.
The defenders of this system will say: "But the CEO creates value for shareholders!"
I say, absolutely, but show me the KPIs. Show me the shareholder return. It should be proportional and we should never have a golden parachute for failure. If a CEO can walk away richer while the company lays off thousands and loses money and value—what exactly are we rewarding?
Walk The Talk And Start With Yourself
If you believe in risk and reward, and I do, then you should believe in earned rewards, not unearned windfalls.
When I started the company, I made a simple rule: I'll take zero stock for myself, or what is called issued shares for executives, unless I create a value to everyone: employees and shareholders. And since inception for the past seven years, I haven't taken a single share from the company. My bonus is also linked to the performance of the firm, so when we had troubled years, I ensured I declared in public: zero bonus and zero shares for myself as the CEO, which is the opposite to what happens in the market. Additionally, I ensure to distribute all these shares to the employees of the firm. Why? So they feel empowered, own part of the company, and believe they are equally compensated for the value they bring. I simply link it to the performance of the firm. If the company makes money, everyone does too!
I recall I gathered the top 40 managers of the company one year and told them they will all be millionaires as we will issue them shares that they can cash in as the company grows and they will surely pass the $1M$ mark. And guess what? That is exactly what happened, and why? Because I was able to give them that percentage from the stock pool that is usually kept for the CEO of a company. Sometimes the CEO takes a staggering 1/3 of that pool!
Some people said what I did was silly, and that it would look like the board doesn't value the CEO. They said no one would care. And maybe they're right—externally, no one cared. But internally? Employees got rewarded, and that's what matters.
Real Leadership Isn't About Extraction
Let's stop pretending that a US$50 million bonus is what it takes to keep talent. If your CEO's only motivation to stay is money, you've got the wrong person in the job. Leadership is about accountability. Ownership. Vision. Not just cashing in stock options and delivering jargon-laced earnings calls.
And don't get me started on the idea that these compensation packages are about "retention." What are we retaining? Someone who might otherwise go start a business? Great. Let them.
The System Needs a Reset
We need a hard cap—or at the very least, hard KPIs—on CEO compensation. Not some cooked metric that gets "massaged" into compliance. I'm talking real performance thresholds tied to real shareholder and employee value; something different so they can get highly compensated when everyone, and the company, does very well.
Make executives rich off performance, not presence. If they hit the numbers, let them win big. If they don't, they walk away like everyone else—with nothing.
Because right now, the richest people in the world aren't inventors. They're not founders. They're not even owners. They have obscenely negotiated contracts. And the rest are paying the bill.
This isn't about being anti-capitalist. It's about capitalism with consequences. If you want to be paid like a genius, you better perform like one. And if the company crashes under your leadership, or even if the market condition is bad, you are a part of it too.
We need to stop rewarding failure, start aligning incentives, and bring ethics back into executive pay. Otherwise, the only thing we're scaling is inequality—and the only thing we're disrupting is trust.