It seems like everybody loves to whine about how much CEOs earn, especially when they bank after screwing up big time. Some recent examples include E*Trade (NASDAQ: ETFC)'s Mitchell Caplan securing $11 million, Countrywide Financial (NYSE: CFC)'s Angelo Mozilo corralling $110 million, Citigroup (NYSE: C)'s Chuck Prince snagging $140 million and Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER)'s Stanley O'Neal pocketing a cool $161 million. Boo hoo, what about the poor shareholders?

Forget the shareholders, I say more power to these CEOs! That's right, quit your whining and accept it -- Wall Street is all about taking as much as you can, there's no compassion involved and anybody who thinks differently is in for a big surprise.

Maybe you should be congratulating these executives on their ability to get to the top and get paid for their efforts. So what if their stocks drop and all their plans go up in flames -- why shouldn't they be compensated for all their hard work and the sacrifices they've made over the years? Over the past two decades, you lazy buy-and-hold shareholders have been spoiled with excess returns, and now that you're losing, you're angry that not everyone is down in the pits with you.

Well, if you want to be angry with someone, take a look in the mirror! Thanks to your cheerleading, determination to hold all a result of greed, these companies have been right to use leverage to deliver fat profits to boost their stock prices, making naïve shareholders like you happy, no matter if those profits came at the cost of long-term stability. After all, it was you that made it a near necessity to beat expectations every quarter and you were the ones who sat idly by, holding these stocks now that reality has set in.

Oh yes, you derided short-selling, rationalizing that in the long run, stocks tend to go higher and you got too emotionally invested to ever take your profits or cut your losses.

Wrong -- you must learn from these CEOs! Never be afraid to oust yourselves from your own investments. Cut your losses and take your profits quicker or better yet, learn to short sell and bet against these companies when you sense something amiss. Learn to be cynical -- the actions of these CEOs should help!

Consider yourselves schooled by these CEOs -- you've paid your tuition, now all that's left is for you to apply the lessons your professors have taught you.

Timothy Sykes writes the blog timothysykes.com, is a former hedge fund manager, star of the TV show Wall Street Warriors and author of the book, An American Hedge Fund: How I Made $2 Million as a Stock Operator & Created a Hedge Fund.