By almost any definition \u201d\u201d except his own and perhaps those of his neighbors here in Silicon Valley \u201d\u201d Hal Steger has made it.<\/p>\n
Mr. Steger, 51, a self-described geek, has banked more than $2 million. The $1.3 million house he and his wife own on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean is paid off. The couple\u2019s net worth of roughly $3.5 million places them in the top 2 percent of families in the United States.<\/p>\n
Yet each day Mr. Steger continues to toil in what a colleague calls \u201cthe Silicon Valley salt mines,\u201d\u009d working as a marketing executive for a technology start-up company, still striving for his big strike. Most mornings, he can be found at his desk by 7. He typically works 12 hours a day and logs an extra 10 hours over the weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know people looking in from the outside will ask why someone like me keeps working so hard,\u201d\u009d Mr. Steger says. \u201cBut a few million doesn\u2019t go as far as it used to. Maybe in the \u201970s, a few million bucks meant \u201d\u02dcLifestyles of the Rich and Famous,\u2019 or Richie Rich living in a big house with a butler. But not anymore.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n