Strong necro bump.
Top executives (CEOs, CFOs, CTOs, CAOs, etc) frequently make more money than physicians. Given that there are 2.3 million such positions in the country, with only around 700k physicians, these jobs aren't exactly rare. Investment banking, small business ownership, and commercial or multiunit real estate endeavors can net more income than physicians make if you end up successful. Certain engineering fields can have you earning top dollar ten years earlier than a physician. CRNAs outearn many of the lower paid physician specialties, and can finish training much sooner, allowing for significant additional time to invest, as well as much less debt.
This excludes all the pure luck+talent fields like acting, sports, writing novels, being a director, and all the related garbage that can land you more money than a physician will ever make if you just happen to be spotted at the right time or resonate with the current times in a way that makes you famous.
All paths but the CRNA one are much riskier, and typically require one to be creative, motivated, willing to take chances, and sometimes more than a good deal of luck. Medicine is for the risk averse, that want a good income but none of the uncertainty that goes with pursuing the other high income careers out there. Many physicians are the sort that aren't creative enough and lack the skills to run their own small business, which is the real way to make a killing if you are so inclined. The physicians that are capable of such endeavors typically do so within a medical context- think "medical spas" and "medical weight loss centers"- which allows them to do quite well for themselves, but they likely would have established a successful business even had they not pursued medicine.
In a nutshell, for the financially inclined, medicine is for you if you desire a high income and are risk averse (don't want to risk not making it up the corporate ladder, investing in a bad business etc), do not feel you could successfully manage a small business (poor marketing skills, no product or niche ideas, don't want the headaches of dealing with payroll etc that many physicians today can sidestep by joining groups or hospitals) but are otherwise very bright. It's pretty much the only field left where brains and hard work=financial success in the end with very little chance of things going bad along the way once you're in.
exactly.
