From Rags to Riches - Career Thoughts

I'm currently reading a biography on Michelle Obama, after this summer's autobiography of Barack Obama. I'm not very far into the book, but her story (poor background, Princeton and Harvard Business School, manager of large hospital fund earning hundreds of thousands per) year, now mom in chief) intrigued me - especially the last part, where she gives up her "own" job for the kids and country. What also interests me is the speed at which things took off for the Obama's. I'm seeing the same phenomenon (albeit as a fraction of the scale of the Obamas) around me, including with my husband's career. Two years ago, life was so different. Just two years! I can't even begin to imagine how a Barack or Michelle Obama feels, sitting in the White House, thinking back on their poor student days and first career years. Of course not everyone can or wants to be a shooting star. Nor is the direction only always upwards. Maybe small, incremental increases in power and wealth are a healthier norm, although most of us dream of that six or seven (!) figure salary...