The leap

When Berkshire Hathaway’s long-anticipated succession became reality, one quieter development began to reverberate through the markets and the halls of corporate America: Greg Abel’s compensation package. A sum that approaches $25 million in a single year is more than a headline. It is a symbolic signal — a definitive move that places the company’s new steward squarely in the league of high-compensation S&P 500 CEOs, and it reframes how investors, boards, and employees think about leadership, continuity and reward.

The change is particularly striking when it is compared to Warren Buffett’s famously modest approach to pay. For decades Buffett accepted a comparatively small salary — long in the six figures — and relied on the gains of concentrated stock ownership and an economy of scale in reputation to keep his incentives aligned with shareholders. Abel’s package is not a repudiation of that stewardship; it is an acknowledgment of market realities and the evolving calculus that boards now use to secure top operational talent.

Why the number matters

A headline figure like $25 million does several jobs at once. It signals that Berkshire is willing to play by modern compensation rules. It acknowledges that run-rate pay for active CEOs — especially those leading conglomerates with sprawling portfolios — has moved substantially higher in recent decades. And it sends a message beyond the C-suite: that the benchmark for what constitutes fair, competitive leadership compensation now exists in a different neighborhood than it did under Buffett’s stewardship.

But beyond signal, the figure also invites questions about purpose. Is this pay primarily retention? Is it incentivization tied to measurable performance? Is it alignment with shareholder outcomes? The answers matter because how compensation is structured determines whether it shapes the right behaviors: long-term capital allocation, prudent risk-taking, and preservation of corporate culture — or casual short-termism and headline chasing.

Pay structure and governance: the levers that create outcomes

Compensation is never just a number. It is a set of instruments: base salary, cash bonuses, stock awards, long-term incentive plans, performance hurdles, and vesting schedules. In the modern S&P 500 playbook, equity-linked awards dominate headline totals because they both preserve cash and create the perception of alignment. But the devil is in the design:

• Performance metrics: Whether pay is linked to absolute stock returns, total shareholder return relative to peers, or operational metrics (revenue growth, margins, free cash flow) determines the behavior it will encourage.
• Vesting horizons: Multi-year cliffs and long-term holding requirements better encourage stewardship than short-term annual cycles.
• Clawbacks and recoupment provisions: These offer boards a safety valve when pay has been awarded based on metrics later revealed as unreliable or achieved through imprudent risk.
• Relative benchmarking: Relying on peer groups to set compensation can anchor pay to an industry median — helpful for competitiveness, but it can also ratchet compensation upward over time if not carefully curated.

Sound governance is the instrument that binds these levers to company purpose. Compensation committees, board oversight, transparent disclosure, and engaged shareholders are the institutional guardrails. When they function well, high pay can be a tool for attracting transformative leaders who create outsized value; when they fail, it can fuel misaligned incentives, erode trust and compound inequality.

The broader trend: why CEO pay has climbed

Several secular forces have driven executive compensation upward across the S&P 500:

• Market competition for top managerial talent: As companies become more complex and global, the premium for leaders with proven operating chops has risen.
• Shift to equity-based compensation: To conserve cash and align incentives, boards rely on stock grants that, when tallied, produce large headline numbers.
• Proxy practices and benchmarking: Peer-group benchmarking and proxy advisory influence can create a ratcheting effect, pushing pay higher over time.
• Investor tolerance tied to performance: As long as returns justify pay, large packages are more palatable to the market.

But these forces also create tension. Higher pay packages increase scrutiny from employees, customers, and the public. They magnify the CEO’s role as a steward of corporate values. And they shift the conversation from mere compensation mechanics to the social contract between a company and its stakeholders.

Implications for workers and the workplace

For the broader workforce, the rise of CEO pay is not merely academic. It feeds into how organizations attract and retain talent, how they design career ladders, and how they communicate value to employees. A few considerations:

• Perception of fairness: When top pay soars while median wages stagnate, employees can become disillusioned. Transparent links between executive pay and workforce outcomes — investment in skills, pay parity, and job stability — help preserve morale.
• Talent mobility: High CEO compensation reflects a tight market for senior leadership. That competition can drive investment in middle-management development and succession planning to reduce reliance on external hires.
• Cultural sustainability: Pay signals values. If a company wants long-termism and prudence, compensation design must reward those traits, not only short-term stock spikes.

Shareholders, accountability and the public spotlight

Shareholders are increasingly assertive in weighing in on pay. Proxy votes, activist campaigns and public scrutiny have improved transparency and encouraged more rigorous linkage of pay to performance. Yet, accountability is uneven: institutional investors may tolerate large packages when the math of returns looks sound, while public perception may still hinge on narratives of fairness and stewardship.

As corporate compensation becomes more public, boards must articulate a coherent story: why this package is necessary, how it aligns with long-term strategy, and how it preserves the company’s fiduciary commitments. Those narratives are themselves a governance tool — clarity breeds trust.

Between tradition and modernity: Berkshire’s transition as a case study

Berkshire Hathaway’s culture was built on the particular charisma and restraint of one leader. Moving to a new generation required reconciling that legacy with marketplace realities. Greg Abel’s pay marks the balancing act: honoring the company’s long-term, value-centric ethos while ensuring the board has the tools to secure and reward an active, accountable manager in a competitive market.

This is not an anomaly so much as a structural pivot. Companies with storied founders often find that their compensation models must evolve to reflect succession, scale and competitive pressures. The test is whether the new model remains faithful to the company’s core—capital discipline, rational allocation, and long-term thinking — while accepting the contemporary demands of the corporate talent market.

Practical takeaways for companies thinking about leadership pay

Boards and leaders should consider a few pragmatic principles when designing or approving large packages:

1. Align: Make the nexus between pay and measurable, long-term company outcomes explicit.
2. Time-horizon: Favor multi-year vesting and holding requirements to emphasize stewardship over short-term gains.
3. Transparency: Clearly explain structure and rationale to investors, employees and the public to reduce uncertainty and misinterpretation.
4. Balance: Use a mix of cash and equity that fits the company’s capital needs and investor expectations.
5. Link to workforce health: Show how executive incentives relate to broader employee investment, including training, pay fairness and job quality.

Conclusion: leadership pay as a mirror

Greg Abel’s $25 million compensation package — and the conversations it sparks — is less about a number and more about how modern corporations define stewardship. Pay levels reflect market forces, but pay design reveals priorities. When a board awards a large package, it is making a bet on strategy, culture and the kind of leadership it believes will create value over decades, not quarters.

For the broader workforce and for those who follow the arc of corporate governance, the moment is instructive. It invites a renewed focus on alignment: between leaders and owners, between incentives and outcomes, and between the life of a company and the people it serves. Done well, thoughtful compensation can be a lever for resilience, innovation and shared success. Done poorly, it can be a distraction from the very stewardship it seeks to ensure.

In the end, the test will be what comes after the headline — the track record Abel and Berkshire build, the clarity of the company’s communication, and whether compensation practices across the market evolve to reward real, measurable value that benefits investors, workers and the broader economy.

The quiet case for physical controls in a digital age

Work has become an orchestra of windows, notifications and shortcuts. Software keeps multiplying features; the user’s attention fragments. What if the solution isn’t another app or overlay but a simple, tactile device — a knob, a button, a puck — that channels common flows into immediate, muscle-memory actions? Project Mirage proposes exactly that: three physical human-computer interfaces (HCIs) designed to streamline online meetings, automate app routines and surf Mac shortcuts with minimal cognitive friction.

The premise is persuasive because it addresses an overlooked fact: many workplace tasks are highly repetitive and predictable. Calendar-driven meetings, end-of-day handoffs, daily app sequences for focused work — these are patterns ripe for physical simplification. Project Mirage doesn’t try to replace software; it extends it into the realm of touch, presence and posture.

The three instruments

Design principles at play

Project Mirage follows several human-centered design moves that make the devices more than novelties:

• Contextual intelligence: Devices are calendar- and app-aware so that a button’s effect depends on the moment, not an arbitrary mapping.
• Minimalism: Each device solves a narrow class of problems — meetings, sequences, shortcuts — rather than trying to be all things.
• Tactile feedback: Haptics, detents and simple displays provide immediate confirmation without requiring visual attention.
• Interoperability: Open APIs and integrations with calendars, meeting platforms and macOS automation ensure these controls work with established workflows.
• Privacy-by-design: Local decision-making and explicit permissions prevent unexpected data leaks — an essential detail for enterprise adoption.

How these devices change the meeting economy

Meetings are not just time blocks; they’re transactions of attention. Radiance reframes meeting interactions from screen-based mic-clicking to embodied gestures. That doesn’t magically make meetings better, but it reduces friction, which in turn reduces the temptation to multitask and the wasted minutes spent recovering from interruptions.

More importantly, the presence of a physical control signals a norm shift. When a participant presses a physical mute/handover button, the act itself is a social cue. Over time, such tangibility can change expectations: meetings can start on time more often, quiet transitions become smoother and follow-ups become an explicit, low-friction part of the ritual rather than an afterthought.

Real workflows, not magic buttons

Consider three short scenarios that illustrate how these devices are useful in practice:

1. The sprint stand-up: Ten minutes before the daily stand-up, Radiance lights up. A single press launches the conference room link, mutes the mic until the facilitator begins and displays a one-line agenda pulled from the calendar note. The meeting runs five minutes shorter because transitions are smoother.
2. The focus hour: You rotate the Rhythm Dial to “Deep Work.” Your task manager hides distracting tabs, a timer starts, notifications are silenced, your communication status flips to do-not-disturb and a curated playlist begins. Deep work starts faster and with less friction.
3. The rapid responder: An email needs a quick compendium to be shared in Slack. Pressing Keystone triggers a sequence: copy the selected text, open Slack, paste into the channel, and attach a template note. The action that used to take a minute now takes three seconds.

These are not futuristic magic; they’re predictable optimizations applied to repetitive tasks. The cumulative effect — fewer micro-interruptions, faster context switches, fewer missed handoffs — compounds across days into measurable time savings.

Adoption, culture and change management

Hardware that alters daily rituals requires more than clever engineering; it needs adoption strategies that understand workplace norms. Technology that changes small behaviors must be easy to configure, forgiving of mistakes and clearly beneficial.

Good rollout strategies include: piloting devices with early adopter teams, prebuilt templates for common meeting types, and enterprise-grade provisioning that allows IT to enforce privacy, compliance and support policies. Visible success stories — a meeting room that consistently runs on time, teams that report faster handoffs — make other groups curious rather than skeptical.

There is also an equity angle. Physical devices may privilege certain workstyles or ergonomic setups. Thoughtful deployment considers shared-desk environments, accessibility needs (voice commands, larger controls, high-contrast indicators) and remote-first contexts where devices must perform reliably across home networks.

Measuring impact

How does an organization know if Mirage’s devices work? A few measurable signals:

• Average meeting length and on-time starts/ends.
• Number of context switches per day and average time to regain focus after an interruption.
• Adoption rate of device-specific routines (how often Radiance routines are used, how many sequences are created on Rhythm Dial, etc.).
• User-reported quality of attention and perceived productivity improvements.

ROI is rarely immediate; instead it’s a slow accretion of saved minutes and smoother collaboration. Still, for teams that operate on tight cadences — customer success, support, product iteration — those minutes can translate to clearer communication, fewer escalations and faster decision-making.

Risks and trade-offs

No interface is neutral. Physical controls may create reliance on specialized hardware, adding procurement, maintenance and standardization costs. They can also mask underlying problems: if meetings are long because they’re poorly structured, a remote that shortens transitions won’t fix poor agenda design or lack of clarity.

Designers must avoid making controls that introduce new cognitive overhead. Too many buttons, ambiguous feedback, or inconsistent mappings across teams can create more friction than they solve. The success of any physical control rests on its ability to become invisible — that is, to integrate so smoothly into workflows that users no longer think about the device itself.

Beyond the desk: social and organizational implications

Physical interfaces affect social dynamics as much as individual efficiency. A device that signals when someone is in a focused session or that reduces the awkwardness of asking for a turn to speak can shift norms toward clearer, more humane collaboration.

In distributed teams where location blurs, these tangible cues restore a piece of physicality to interaction. They invite more deliberate rituals: scheduled wrap-ups, shared routines, and visible signals of availability. Those rituals are the scaffolding of good remote culture — small, repeatable acts that align expectations and reduce micro-conflict.

What’s next — toward a hybrid interface ecology

Project Mirage offers a glimpse of an interface ecology where touch and screen coexist. The future isn’t a battleground of physical versus digital; it’s a choreography in which knobs, buttons and pucks extend software logic into muscle memory. That hybrid model favors continuity, low-friction transitions and—crucially—human attention.

Next steps likely include deeper personalization, machine learning that detects and suggests useful routines, and tighter integration with enterprise systems. But the most interesting frontier is social: how these devices, by reshaping small rituals, might rebalance the tempo of knowledge work from frantic to manageable.

Lead Like You’re Running Forever

Leadership used to be described in terms of sprints and jumps: launch a product, close a deal, pivot overnight. The modern reality looks different. CEOs increasingly frame their career and company stewardship as a marathon. The difference matters. A marathon requires pacing, recovery, strategy, and a long view of performance. Leadership longevity does, too.

Across industries, senior executives are swapping adrenaline-fueled heroics for repeatable routines. The goal is not to be invincible in a crisis but to be durable: to stay mentally clear, physically capable, and emotionally available through cycles of disruption, growth, and reinvention.

Chess Over Checkers: Mental Training That Scales

Mental fitness for CEOs looks less like raw IQ and more like pattern recognition, emotional regulation, and decision architecture. Busy calendars don’t erase the need to think deeply; they simply demand smarter structures for doing it.

Ritualize Deep Work

CEOs who sustain performance build protected blocks of uninterrupted time into their week. These aren’t flexible windows that collapse under meetings; they’re immovable commitments—two-hour blocks on Monday morning for strategy, Thursday afternoons for reflection. During these sessions, email and messaging are off-limits. The aim is sustained attention rather than frantic multitasking.

Play Strategic Games

Chess, Go, bridge, even complex simulation games are common tools. They aren’t hobbies alone; they are rehearsal for pattern recognition and planning several moves ahead. A quick daily puzzle or a weekly chess match primes cognitive circuits for counterfactual thinking: imagining opponents’ responses, anticipating second-order consequences, and valuing patience over impulsivity.

Decision Protocols

High-performing leaders externalize parts of their decision-making through protocols. They set thresholds for escalation (e.g., revenue impact greater than 1% goes to the executive team), create pre-mortem checklists, and run “if-then” scenarios that reduce friction. A defined decision architecture preserves mental energy for novel problems.

Micro-Reflection

Short, daily debriefs—ten minutes to list wins, surprises, and pending questions—turn experience into learning. Over weeks, these bite-sized reflections reveal patterns that a chaotic calendar hides. They are a low-cost way to convert operational noise into strategic signal.

Manage Energy, Not Just Time

Time is finite; energy is variable. Many CEOs measure the latter obsessively. The same eight-hour day can be wildly productive or scattered depending on sleep, nutrition, stress, and cognitive load. Leaders who last the distance treat energy like currency.

Respect Biological Rhythms

Leading CEOs align demanding tasks with their peak cognitive windows. Morning people block mornings for analysis and complex decisions; late-night problem solvers plan critical meetings for afternoons into evenings. Beyond chronotypes, they map work around ultradian cycles—90- to 120-minute bursts of high focus followed by short recovery. Pacing with these natural pulses raises sustainable output.

Sleep as Strategic Investment

Sleep is nonnegotiable. It is where consolidation, creativity, and emotional regulation happen. Leaders who sleep well get fewer impulsive calls, handle ambiguity better, and recover faster after setbacks. When travel or crisis threatens sleep, they schedule compensatory naps, limit caffeine late in the day, and prioritize one or two nights of recovery when possible.

Nutrition and Hydration for Clarity

Strategic eating—balanced protein, steady fiber, and moderated simple carbs—helps avoid cognitive slumps. Intermittent fasting appears in some routines not as a fad but as a discipline for consistent energy. Hydration is the simple habit that gets overlooked: even small deficits impair decision-making. Leaders carry water and plan meals that won’t trigger post-lunch crashes.

Boundaries and Recovery

High-demand roles create constant cognitive load. A deliberate recovery routine—walking meetings, short meditation, breathing exercises, or a five-minute stretch between meetings—reduces cumulative stress. These micro-recoveries add up, keeping leaders sharper at hour 10 than they were at hour 2.

Physical Training: The Foundation of Executive Resilience

Physical fitness is the bedrock that permits sustained mental and emotional performance. CEOs who endure don’t chase peak performance in the gym; they build reliable capability: strength, mobility, cardiovascular fitness, and recovery capacity.

Consistency Over Intensity

Many leaders choose daily movement—30 minutes to an hour—over occasional extreme exertion. Short runs, cycling commutes, resistance training, or a weekday swim become linchpins. The point is to create habits that persist through travel, heavy work cycles, and life changes.

Mix the Modalities

Endurance work (running or cycling) improves cardiovascular resilience and mental grit. Strength training builds structural durability and prevents injury. Mobility work—yoga, dynamic stretching—keeps the body functional under stress. The best routines mix these elements so one strengthens what the other exposes as a weakness.

Train for Recovery

Rest is part of training. CEOs use progressive overload with mindful recovery: scheduled deload weeks after intense work, sleep-first travel plans, and consistent physiotherapy or massage when travel schedules permit. Recovery planning is not optional—it’s the protection that prevents burnout.

Rituals, Cues, and the Architecture of Resilience

Rituals function as low-effort cues that nudge behavior. The simplest rituals—an early-morning walk with no phone, a single inbox sweep at 10 a.m., shutting down screens an hour before bed—create predictable states of mind that anchor performance through volatility.

Boundaries That Protect Culture

CEOs also design organizational rituals: weekly skip-level meetings, asynchronous check-ins, and a cadence of strategic reviews. These rituals scale resilience beyond the individual by distributing attention and creating repeatable structures for action under pressure.

Delegation as Longevity Strategy

Effective delegation is a performance multiplier. It’s not abdication; it’s architecture. Leaders extend their effectiveness by clarifying decision rights, empowering a second line of leadership, and creating feedback loops that limit surprises. Delegation preserves cognitive energy for problems only the CEO should solve.

Build a Trusted Second Line

Longevity requires bench strength. CEOs cultivate leaders who can shoulder responsibility when crises compress their bandwidth. That means consistent development, transparent expectations, and a culture where failure is a learning event rather than a career-ender.

Practical Playbook: Daily, Weekly, and Travel Habits

These are concrete practices that leaders weave into calendars and carry on the road.

Daily

• First 60–90 minutes device-free: reading, exercise, or strategic thinking.
• One protected deep-work block for complex decisions.
• Micro-reflection at day’s end: list 3 wins, 3 lessons, 1 question.
• Movement every 90–120 minutes: short walks, standing breaks, or breathing exercises.

Weekly

• One day partly reserved for learning and curiosity (books, chess, long-form analysis).
• Health check-in: sleep, hydration, and a 30–60 minute training session focused on strength or endurance.
• Team syncs that emphasize priorities and friction points—not just status updates.

On the Road

• Prioritize sleep: bring a familiar sleep kit (eye mask, white noise, travel pillow).
• Schedule movement: short hotel workouts, local runs, or active transport to meetings.
• Limit night meetings; keep at least one recovery morning after long travel.

Signals of Durability: What to Watch In Yourself

Longevity isn’t measured by single heroic acts; it’s visible in a handful of signals:

• Consistent clarity—can you make calm, competent choices under pressure?
• Physical steadiness—do you recover quickly after busy cycles?
• Emotional availability—are you present for your team and loved ones?
• Learning velocity—are you extracting lessons and applying them?

If those signals fade, it’s time to restructure rhythms, not simply push harder.

Common Pitfalls and How Leaders Avoid Them

The most resilient CEOs don’t avoid mistakes; they design around predictable ones.

• Solution: Fight the tyranny of the urgent by protecting deep work and delegating routine decisions.
• Solution: Treat burnout as a system failure—rebalance workload, build buffers, and normalize slower cycles for recovery.
• Solution: Avoid hero culture by rewarding sustainable habits over crisis heroics.

A Final Note on Purpose and Pace

Training mind and body for leadership is not an exercise in maximalism. It’s a discipline of moderation with fierce intent. CEOs who last the longest are not simply the most driven; they are the most deliberate about how they allocate their attention and energy. They choose the long game over episodic triumphs, and they build lives that make sustained stewardship possible.

For leaders reading this, the invitation is practical: pick one small ritual—protect a weekly deep-work block, start a consistent 30-minute movement practice, or keep a short daily reflection—and run with it for three months. Habits compound. The margin you build today becomes the durability you lead with tomorrow.