Mohamed El-Erian walked away from a nine-figure job after his 10-year-old handed him a list of life events he'd missed

If you work full-time and have kids, there's a good chance you've missed a school concert or game because you had to work. A Pew Research survey of 2,242 working parents, published in June, found nearly half of full-time working parents say they at least sometimes miss their children's activities because of work.

Mohamed El-Erian got his reminder on a piece of paper.

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In a 2014 essay for Worth magazine , the former CEO of PIMCO (Pacific Investment Management) recalled asking his daughter to do something several times — brushing her teeth, he thought — with no luck. He reminded her she used to listen the first time. She asked him to wait before stepping out of the room and returning with a list.

"It was a list that she had compiled of her important events and activities that I had missed due to work commitments," El-Erian wrote .

There were 22 items on the list, including her first day at school, her first soccer match of the season, a parent-teacher meeting and a Halloween parade. "And the school year wasn't yet over," he added . By that September, the essay had gone viral .

El-Erian was PIMCO's chief executive officer and co-chief investment officer . PIMCO was the world's largest bond fund manager, looking after nearly $2 trillion in client assets . (That distinction now belongs to Larry Fink's BlackRock .)

In January 2014, PIMCO announced El-Erian was leaving . COO Douglas Hodge would step in by mid-March . PIMCO didn't say why, and El-Erian didn't either .

PIMCO didn't disclose what it paid people , but in 2012, The New York Times reported that El-Erian took home about $100 million the year before, citing an anonymous source familiar with PIMCO's books . Documents obtained by Bloomberg View columnist Barry Ritholtz later showed that El-Erian got a $230 million bonus for 2013 , his last full year at the firm.

El-Erian's first reaction was to defend himself. "I felt awful and got defensive: I had a good excuse for each missed event! Travel, important meetings, an urgent phone call, sudden to-dos…" he wrote .