Why didn't Walter White choose to work at Gray Matter instead of becoming a drug lord in Breaking Bad?

Question

In "Breaking Bad", we see that Walter White, a brilliant chemist, chooses to enter the dangerous world of methamphetamine production rather than accept a job offer from his former colleagues at Gray Matter Technologies.

Given Walter's high intelligence and the obvious benefits of working at a successful pharmaceutical company, why didn't he make this seemingly more logical decision?

It's a superior choice for the following reasons;

• Gray Matter could have provided a high salary and potentially covered his medical expenses.
• It would have been a legal and much safer option for supporting his family.
• The job would have utilized his chemistry expertise in a legitimate field. Chemistry was also his passion.
• It is far more respectable than being a drug lord

What factors in Walter's character or backstory explain this seemingly irrational choice?

I'm looking for answers that delve into Walter's psychology, and any relevant details from the series that shed light on this decision.

Answer 1

The timing of Walt's history matters here. He broke with Grey Matter a long time ago.

Walter White broke with Grey Matter a long time before the events depicted in the show. He could have joined at the firm's startup and his ideas were significant in the firm's success. This is significant.

The rich owners–his former colleagues–offer to pay for his treatment, as well as making a vague job offer (where the health insurance would pay for his treatment) though it is far from clear what his role would be. But both offers seem to be made out of charity not a belief that White has a big contribution to make based on his capability.

When White rebuffs their offer of money he never makes the reason why explicit (though he already knows he can make enough from drug dealing). His motivations for rejecting their help are not stated explicitly but seem clear from many of his other actions and this is where his long-ago history with Grey Matter matters.

He seems to hold some grudge against the firm because they have been successful partly by exploiting his ideas. But he broke with them long ago for opaque reasons (but possibly because he fell out with his ex-girlfriend for some reason). Whatever the inciting incident, he clearly resents their success. His ego seems to assume he deserved to share in that success (even though his own, possibly precipitate, actions led to his split from them). And many of his actions demonstrate clearly that his need to prove himself is a major driving force in all his actions. His bruised ego (he is a badly paid teacher not a rich entrepreneur) needs to prove he could achieve great success by his own actions. Which he does, albeit in the drug business. But success is success as far as his ego in concerned: he has proved his underlying capability to himself.

Given his ego-driven need to prove himself, it seems clear that he rejects what is, in effect, charity offered by Grey Matter. If he accepts the offer of money, he is admitting he cannot achieve success by his own actions. And his ego simply cannot accept that. He knows he can be successful in empire building and money making by using his skills in the drug trade. Moral issues don't even come into play.

Answer 2

There are some good answers here already that I agree with, but neither of them mention the depth of Walt's ego and how that plays out later. Minor spoilers if you're just watching the show for the first time.

Walt first rejects Grey Matter's (Gretchen and Elliott) offer because he senses they're pitying him, and his recent cancer diagnosis puts his ego into overdrive. While he is shown at the beginning of the show tolerating a lot of abuse (from his students at his car wash job, from his boss, dead end high school job when his talents are so much more) after diagnosis he's shown standing up for himself (shorting the battery of the guy at the gas station mocking his son, quitting his job at the car wash). The rejection of Grey Matter's medical is an extension of this standing-up-for-himself: he doesn't know how much time he has left, but he wants to finally do what's important for him, and that's independence at first.

There are some flashbacks to the falling-out he had with Gretchen and Elliott and he resents their success. But once he makes some money making and selling drugs and paying for his own treatment, he does use Grey Matter money as a cover story to explain to Skyler why he's getting treatment. This eventually blows up as Skyler gets suspicious and talks to Gretchen trying to smooth things over and Gretchen admits she hasn't been giving money to Walt; Skyler has a breakdown over this and eventually forces Walt to tell the truth.

Further support for the "Walt's ego" reason: even Walt's opportunity to suggest the illicit drug money is coming from the charity his son set up doesn't sit right with him, he can't "take it lying down" he has to flex and let the people he loves know that he's earning it somehow, even though that raises suspicion with his DEA brother-in-law. A lot of the conflict in the middle seasons of the show come from the easy opportunities to claim income from a legitimate source and Walt refusing to accept them.

Indeed, you could say the whole show revolves around what could have been an easy path for Walt; don't get treatment, or accept aid in treatment... his choices and consequences create all the dynamic tension and drama in the show. There's an old comic that comes to mind that boils the whole show down to a few frames, if health care weren't out-of-control expensive in the U.S.:

Answer 3

He doesn't want to accept Elliot's offer because he thinks that is Elliot's pity, he is looking down on Walt and Walt's ego wants to be on top of everything. He doesn't want to be the employee, he wants to be the boss.

Answer 4

Just to add an important element to the other answers...

Given Walter's high intelligence and the obvious benefits of working at a successful pharmaceutical company, why didn't he make this seemingly more logical decision?

Walt's motivation wasn't to pay for his cancer - in fact he initially refused to get treated in the first place (see the pillow scene from Season 1). His actual motivation was to leave money for his family. Remember this dialogue from Season 2, Episode 1:

WALTER WHITE: Adjusting for inflation – good state college – adjusting for inflation. Say $45,000 a year, two kids, four years of college... $360,000 Remaining mortgage on the home, $107,000. Home equity line, $30,000, that's $137,000. Cost of living, food, clothing, utilities, say two grand a month? I mean, that should put a dent in it, anyway. 24K a year provides for, say, ten years. That's $240,000, plus 360 plus 137... 737. $737,000, that's what I need. That is what I need.

Walt assumed that his cancer will quickly kill him (and wasn't wrong, he had roughly two somewhat healthy years left past his diagnosis) so he needed a lot of money to leave for his family. In 2008 a great salary for a chemist might be $150,000 after taxes. Deduct living expenses and Walt might be able to leave $200,000 to his family, which was clearly not enough.

Yes, there was absolutely an element of pride involved as explained in the other answers, but the job offer was also not enough to cover what Walt wanted for his family.

Gray Matter could have provided a high salary and potentially covered his medical expenses.

He already had insurance from his job as a school teacher that would've covered 'standard' medical treatment. The only reason he needed extra money for treatment was because Marie insisted on him going to the most expensive clinic in the state that wasn't covered by his plan, which he likewise resented:

Marie: Okay. So first thing tomorrow, I talk to my radiologists, we find you the best oncology dream team.

...

Skyler: Yeah, anytime on Friday is absolutely fine. Thank you so much for working us in. Can I just put that on a credit card? Great. Perfect. Okay, so we will see you at 10:45 on Friday morning. Thank you so much. The best oncologist I mean, not even just in New Mexico, but one of the top ten in the entire nation. His name is Dr. Delcavoli. And we see him on Friday. I mean, Marie really came through for us. She had her boss call and this is good. From here on out, things are gonna...

Walter: What's that we're putting on a credit card?

Skyler: It's just a deposit kind of thing.

Walter: How much of a deposit?

Skyler: It's $5,000.

Walter: Five thousand? And what's that? Just to start? Just to tell me what I already know?

Skyler: Walt, he's not in our HMO, okay? So be it. We'll figure it out. Come on. Don't get hung up on money here. We can always borrow from Hank.

Walter: Absolutely not. No, I just, we're not gonna do that.

Answer 5

It's already quite some years that I watched the show. However I am quite certain Walter was already (deeply) involved in the drug trade when his old friends/business-partners offered him a job.

So there never was a choice of ENTERING the drug trade and taking a job at Gray Matter. The choice was between leaving the drug trade and taking a job at Gray Matter. By the time he got the offer from Gray Matter he was already quite accomplished in the drug trade and already had some blood on his hands, so there was no incentive to leave the drug trade.