Whenever I’m feeling down, I scan the message boards of Greedy Associates. Reading five minutes’ worth of whining from a bunch of rich, spoiled brats makes me feel better about my problems.

Consider this gripe from “Francine”: “$165,000 is just not as much as you think. Take out $70,000 for taxes. That’s $95,000. Then there’s a broker’s fee ($2,500), rent ($1,200 a month), food ($200 a week), clothes ($2,000 a year, say) …” You get the idea.

Or this challenge from “Ivan the Terrible”: “I’d like to hear from at least one ‘genuinely’ happy corporate attorney out there—and please don’t give me that bullshit that you feed those 2L summer interns. I am not impressed by horseshit like ‘Uh, I’ve worked [made photocopies] on several billion-dollar deals’—whoopee.”

Obviously, people, our profession sucks the big one.

Or not.

The fact is, these young men and women are making more money in a year than millions of people around the world earn in their lifetime. And frankly, there’s not a lot of heavy lifting required. Sure, the hours are long and the partners are demanding, but what do young associates expect for these salaries? If they can’t take that kind of pressure in their twenties, how are they going to deal with the increasing responsibilities of partnership? This is, after all, a period of testing and learning. No one should expect to be coddled.

To be honest, the whining doesn’t really surprise me, since it often begins in law school. Many students who beat out heavy competition to make it to places like Harvard demand an end to competition and grading as soon as they arrive. They don’t like the Socratic method because it puts them on the spot. They demand speech codes to protect them from “offensive” comments. They want to be treated as adults when it comes to salaries but like children when it comes to the rough-and-tumble of the real world.

Sorry, but if you can’t take the heat, pick a different profession. If you want to be among the highest-paid professionals in the world, you’ll have to work for it. If Harvard is too competitive for you, choose a less competitive law school. If the hours at Cravath are too long, go to a firm that pays half as much and gives you more time off. Nobody is forcing anyone to aspire to the top rungs of one of the most-compensated professions, but if you do, you have no right to bring down the standards.

There are plenty of other options. Do public interest work. Defend capital cases. Work on environmental cases. These jobs, too, require hard work, but they may be more gratifying. They certainly don’t pay as well, but big money comes with a price tag—hard work and long hours. You are in control of your own destiny. Stop griping and start choosing. Here’s another idea: Open your own firm, either alone or with a friend or two. It won’t be easy, but at least you can decide how hard you want to work. Be sure to leave your previous job on good terms; the firm may refer cases to you if the matters are too small or if it has a conflict. You’ll have nobody to whine about, but if you get really successful, maybe you’ll be able to hire associates who can whine about you.

Young associates used to have the excuse that they were victims of a bait and switch. There was an old joke about the Devil offering a third-year law student a free look at hell. The student sees happy people eating well and having fun, so he becomes a sinner. When he dies and goes to hell permanently, it’s a very different place with fire and misery. He complains to the Devil, reminding him of what he’d previously been shown. The Devil replies, “That was our summer associate program.” But today—thanks to Greedy Associates and other information sources—no one has the right to claim surprise. You know what awaits you at the big firms, and you have chosen that path. So stop complaining. Either do your job or change jobs. There’s nothing attractive about a whining rich kid.