I was watching the TED video Refusing to Settle, and the speaker mentioned a friend who had a great job and life, and said: "He got this amazing job at one of the top corporate firms, making well over six figures, and he's got it all figured out."
The speaker later commented that "Nobody knows what they're doing. Nobody has it figured out.", as his friend was actually not happy with his own job.
What exactly does the phrasal verb "figure out" mean here? I looked into several dictionaries, the meaning would be 1) to understand/find out; 2) to calculate, either of them would be a little confused for me to adopt here.
Does it mean his friend is successful in life in every aspects, which indicates he has found out the real meaning of life and has solved all the problems in life?
Would appreciate detailed explanation of this phase in this context.
Best Answer
Figured out means "understood" or "solved", as you noted. I think the problem here is with "it" or "it all".
"He's got it all figured out" would, in general, means "he's got life solved" and would imply that the person has worked out a successful way of living. In this context, it would go beyond merely making a lot of money (because that was explicitly stated) to being happy, having success in other realms and so on. Someone making $1,000,000 a year but who was miserable would not have it all figured out.