Two lists were published last month almost simultaneously. One was the Forbes ranking of the 40 richest Indians. The other was the Business India list of the best-paid Indians. At a time when the man on the street has started feeling the pinch of the financial crisis, they make for rather envious reading.

Look at the highlights first. Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries has displaced Lakshmi Mittal as the world’s richest Indian on the Forbes list. In a way, it’s a coming of age of Indians in India; a decade back, the real success stories were non-resident Indians (NRIs).

Several have lost a lot of money thanks to the stock market plunge; K.P. Singh of real estate empire DLF, for instance, has seen a $22 billion plunge in his net worth (down from $30 billion in March to $7.8 billion). But, at some stage, money is merely a book entry; the Ambanis, Mittals and the Singhs are certainly not bothered.

The Top 10 are all scions of business families. There are no self-made millionaires. True, Sunil Mittal and Gautam Adani carved out empires of their own. Mittal’s father was a politician-businessman while Adani’s father was into textile trading, and the sons have made it big in totally different lines. But there is no Dhirubhai Ambani to mark a first-generation success. Even K.P. Singh (78) inherited his business from his father-in-law.

The other list — the highest-paid executives — could easily be mistaken for the richest Indians. There are three names in common in the first 10 and all the richest Indians have some presence on the highest-paid list.

There is a reason for this, of course. Forbes calculates wealth on the basis of your holding in publicly listed companies. So unless you own a company that is listed on the exchanges, you don’t get a look in. And if you own a company, you are very likely to be its CEO. Family-run businesses in India do not believe in professional managers.

The top professional in India on the highest-paid list is at No. 20 — Amar Lulla, the joint managing director of Cipla. There was a time when Vivek Paul of Wipro was in the top 10. But he was based in the US and drew a dollar salary.

Forget what owners pay themselves. Very few of us are born into that league and the ones who are don’t read articles on jobs. Besides, the larger part of their compensation is commission, which depends on profits. But is it a disincentive that it is so difficult in India to break into the ranks of the highest paid?

For some — the overly ambitious — the answer is “yes”. But the majority would do well to remember that a high pay for a professional (it’s different for owner-managers) comes with various negatives. First, is the quality of life. “Forget quality of life,” says Mumbai-based HR consultant Shashi Rao. “Most CEOs don’t have a life. They discover that too late.”

Second, particularly in certain professions, there is an enormous downside. You make a lot of money for a couple of years. But, very soon, you could be out on your ear and unemployable. Look at what is happening in banking and the finance sector today. Reports The Economist: “The sheer amount that bankers are paid riles people at the best of times. When the economy is ravaged and the source of the trouble is banks themselves, the pitchforks come out… ‘The villagers are at the gates of the castle with burning torches,’ says one compensation consultant.”

HR professionals have long held that there is a threshold level in compensation; after a certain point it stops making a difference. It’s easy to say that, of course. But what of the man who is yearning to take his family on a holiday once a year and doesn’t have the money? “It is a question of rational expectations and comparing yourself with others in your situation,” says Rao. “A little ambition is good. A giant ambition can destroy you. All these rags-to-riches stories are more harmful than you think.”

A new study by Dan Ariely, a professor of behavioural economics at Duke University, the US, indicates that big bonuses don’t always deliver. “For most bankers, a multimillion-dollar compensation package could easily be counterproductive,” says Ariely. More research is needed. Perhaps Citibank will finance it.

The Richest Indians

       Net worth ($ bn)

1.        Mukesh Ambani        20.8

2.        Lakshmi Mittal        20.5

3.        Anil Ambani        12.5

4.        Sunil Mittal        7.9

5.        Kushal Pal Singh        7.8

6.        Shashi & Ravi Ruia        7.6

7.        Azim Premji        7.0

8.        Kumar Birla        5.0

9.        Adi Godrej        4.0

10.        Gautam Adani        3.9

Source: Forbes

Top 10 highest-paid Indians

       Remuneration (Rs crore)

1.        Mukesh Ambani        44.02

2.        Kalanithi Maran        32.41

3.        Kavery Maran        32.41

4.        P.R.R. Rajha        32.40

5.        Anil Ambani        30.03

6.        Malvinder Singh        19.58

7.        Sunil Mittal        19.55

8.        Navin Jindal        16.93

9.        V.K. Jain        16.87

10.        Sajjan Jindal        16.73

Source: Business India