It’s easy to say you care about your spouse and children, but words are empty compared to actions. Earlier this year, a California multimillionaire was forced to decide what was most important to him in life.
Mohamed El-Erian was CEO of a $2-trillion investment firm called PIMCO. He’s a very successful and hard-driving businessman who has made a lot of money. In 2011 alone, his income was $200 million. But he shocked the financial world in January when he quit his job — not to jump to a rival firm, but to spend time with his wife and daughter.
We can all learn something from his choice.
El-Erian was forced to decide what was most important to him — his family or his income — because his daughter challenged him. Writing for Worth magazine in May, El-Erian explained his crisis of values.
He said he asked his daughter to do something — which he recalls as brushing her teeth — and the two ended up arguing about her lack of compliance. He reminded her that she had always been quick to obey him, but she asked him to wait a minute, then she disappeared briefly to get a piece of paper from her room.

Fallen world keeps bruising me, but I still believe love will win
Since I’ve lost status I once had, it’s a shock to see I want it back
Accepting joy tomorrow does no good if tomorrow never comes
I want to live a life my kids will want to emulate as they grow up
Tenn. woman threatened for allowing daughter to ride bike to school
National sugar daddy? Warren Buffet wants to give us money … sorta
Global warming or a new ice age? Anyone who claims to know is lying
Obama: ‘…all the choices we’ve made have been the right ones…’