Founders often feel guilty paying top talent $500,000 or $1,000,000 a year, treating it like printing money. The fix is simple: stop calling it a problem. Reframe it as normal and the discomfort disappears.
You pay people more than you would prefer. You are also printing money. It's just something that you're not used to. I mean, I can tell you the first time I paid somebody, you know, $500,000 a year, I was like, oh my God. And then I paid my first person $1 million a year. I was like, oh my God. There are these like psychological barriers. But my favorite way of solving this problem is just by saying it's not a problem.
