Hacker News Reader

Major league athlete, regular on a TV show or star in movies, former press secretary/lobbyist, best-selling author, multi-hit-album singer/band, music mogul/producer, real-estate agent in an expensive area.

I bet there are 100s of jobs where the top salaries are over two million. There are very few who can get them, though.

View on HN

Most of those that you mentioned are very high risk fields, where you don't get a salary - you may hit it big for a few years, but very few athletes/artists/actors/etc have consistent long-term multi-million dollar years. Many are essentially entrepreneurs.

The problem with a high earning career as a professional athlete, is that you have to average their salary over their lifetime, and their earnings drop really fast after they hit their mid thirties.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com