When imagining the CEO of a multibillion-dollar company, it’s easy to fall prey to clichés: a well-groomed businessman in designer clothes, walking from one international meeting to the next, followed by a team of assistants. But not every entrepreneur enjoys the success that comes with a glamorous lifestyle—some are just grateful to have paid off their student loans.
Serial entrepreneur Sami Inkinen has founded and scaled three different companies, including two unicorns, during his 20-year career. Although the Virta Health CEO has amassed wealth due to his business success, he is not concerned about his net worth. In fact, Inkinen only considered himself wealthy when he was able to pay off the $100,000 in student debt that had burned through his bank account.
“There was a point in my life when I felt rich. I haven’t thought about money since then,” Inkinen said wealth. In 2008, three years after Inkinen co-founded real estate search company Trulia, he sold a tranche of secondary stock valued at $500,000 before taxes. “I have enough money to pay off all my student debt. I can buy whatever I want, and it’s a very expensive bike, [and] Decorating my small apartment in San Francisco. “
The immigrant entrepreneur first got involved with mobile software company Matchem in 2000, while still living in Finland. After two and a half years as co-founder and VP of Business Development, Inkinen sold the organization for several million dollars and left life in Europe for the United States
The Gen-X entrepreneur attended Stanford University’s MBA program, graduating in 2005 with an advanced business degree and $100,000 in student debt. Consulting giant McKinsey made him a six-figure job offer that came with a $10,000 signing bonus. For Inkinen, it was an opportunity to pay off the loan quickly, but he eschewed the opportunity and started anew.
Over the next decade, the entrepreneur helped grow Trulia into an industry mainstream before Zillow acquired the company in 2015 for a whopping $3.5 billion. Now, Inkinen is in his third 11-year run as CEO of Virta Health, a $2 billion healthcare company. His student loans are paid, his bills are paid, and his house is fully furnished.
Inkinen will always remember the excitement of financial security he felt in 2008, but he said it was fleeting. The executive said being “money driven” was not in his nature.
“This feeling of happiness with money disappeared in less than two or three days. I was like, ‘Well, it’s great that I’m debt-free,'” Inkinen explained. “Money won’t change my life, it won’t ruin my life, and it won’t bring happiness.”
Many may scoff at the idea that money can’t buy happiness, but for Inkinen, a good quality of life is what he’s really after.
Growing up in Finland, he had a litany of social services at his fingertips. The country’s healthcare system is essentially free and funded by public taxes. Education at all levels from primary school to university is free for students. This may be part of the reason why Finland is consistently ranked as one of the happiest countries in the world and topped the list last year. Culture instills a tendency to pursue non-material happiness, Inkinen said.
“Personally, I’ve never been motivated by money [because] in finland [we have] Free education, free medical care. I always felt like I had everything I needed. “I’ve been satisfied with very little,” said the Virta Health CEO. “I’ve always felt like I’ve had enough. When I bought my first car, I was 37 years old. I’m not going to say, ‘Oh, I can buy the coolest car and drive around in circles.'”
As hundreds of thousands of dollars flowed into his bank account, his mindset didn’t change. It didn’t matter whether he prospered by selling stock or returned in triumph and opened the New York Stock Exchange. Inkinen always had his sights set on the prize: growing into a major contender in Silicon Valley.
“It’s not like, ‘Oh, it’s sold and now everything changes.’ “The money and the one-time ringing of the IPO bell were nothing to me,” Inkinen continued. “I was lucky enough to experience that I could pay off my student debt with a check. After that, I really didn’t think about money. “
Wealth brings many comforts; the super-rich don’t have to worry about paying rent, saving for retirement, or paying off tuition debt. But happiness goes beyond a certain point—experts estimate an annual income of about $500,000. Founders who emerged from dire financial situations and emerged victorious also added their two cents.
Shark Tank Investing icon Barbara Corcoran admits that the old adage “money can’t buy happiness” is indeed true. The entrepreneur, who sold her real estate company, the Corcoran Group, for $66 million, said she’s well-positioned to talk about the issue: “I know because I’ve been poor. I’ve been rich. I’ve been in between. So I can talk to both.”
“You start looking for the next thing money can buy,” Cochran told CNBC in 2023. “I’m no happier today than I was when I was broke. Do you think things will change? No, I’m still insecure about the same things. I’m still nervous about the same things.”
Likewise, investing legend Warren Buffett may be worth $146 billion, but his spending habits aren’t as outrageous as the numbers in his bank account. Famously, the Oracle of Omaha still lives in the modest Nebraska house he bought in 1958 for $31,500; and drives a 20-year-old car around town instead of opting for a sportier option. The former Berkshire Hathaway CEO clipped coupons and took his fellow billionaires to McDonald’s while sitting on generations of wealth.
Buffett said at the 2014 Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting: “I don’t think standard of living is equated with the cost of living above a certain point. I’m not going to be happier in life… It would be worse if I owned six houses or eight houses or a bunch of different things. It’s not relevant at all.”
This story originally appeared on Fortune.com
