To think a lot of people earning 6 figures aren’t actually that smart, just lucky?

[SnarkyDenimFox]

I’ve met plenty of high earners and honestly, a lot of them don’t seem any sharper than the rest of us. Right place, right time, right connections. AIBU to think it’s often luck, not talent?

My late husband never showed stress in emergencies when everyone else did and he could go on for days looking calm and unruffled. people who worked with him said "oh never stressed never lost it, always calm and supportive" I have seen him do it. What nobody except me saw was the after effect of maintaining the exterior.

Good point. Most Boards are pretty photogenic.

(Maybe not always in computing type sectors...)

one of my closest friends and i are very similar in terms of personality -
smart, self-aware, but also laid back possibly even to the point of laziness. it's arguable that he's even more laid back and lazy than i am.

we are the same age.

he failed his a-levels, and got a very junior role, paying basically minimum wage. after a year, he decided to re-sit his a-levels, and ended up going to uni 2 years after me.

he went back to the same job after uni because it was easy, and i found a grad role. over the next 10-15 years we both progressed relatively slowly but steadily.

we both decided around the same time to do a professional qualification, and both achieved this (him a bit more quickly, because he lived alone at that time, whereas i was married with children).

since achieving our qualifications, his career has fast-forwarded drastically - he's basically trebled his salary and is now at junior director level. mine has continued to progress steadily - maybe a little more quickly than previously (i now earn about 50% more than i did pre-qualification).

we've basically had the same number of different roles since qualifying.

the only real difference between us, is that because of his panic failed a-levels job search, he happened to land in a pharma company, and so his industry experience has always been in pharma. i am in finance/accounting.

he earns double what i earn, because there are very few of him, but there are thousands of me.

i absolutely do not begrudge him what he has - he is a good friend, a good person and i value him greatly.

it does however chafe slightly, that through shear chance at 17, with less effort, he's reached a level that i likely never will.

i acknowledge that i could absolutely have reached a similar level, but it would have taken me so much more time and effort, and would not have allowed me the time and space with my family that i have enjoyed.

Correct.

But yes, you can easily earn 100k and do very little if that’s what you

How do they manage that then?!😄

I think you do need intelligence, but more importantly, you have to have the personality and the drive to get to the top. My brother is the most intelligent person I know, but he works to live and doesn’t care about earning any more than he needs to live. Working overtime, sucking up to anyone, tolerating others bullshit or taking on extra responsibilities are the last things he would ever want to do. Whereas the CEOs I used to hire for when I did recruitment where workaholics and made every candidate they met think they were special. They always wanted “gravitas” for high positions

Not really OP.

What is it with MN these days, every day another thread bashing people who have got on in life.

No wonder there is no ambition left in the UK.

I earn 6 figures, a few things:

I deliberately chose a career that paid very well because I had no financial support as a student and debts to pay. Starting salaries when I began were barely minimum
wage once all hours were factored in but once qualified grow significantly with experience when promoted.

To get accepted as a trainee into my chosen firm required high A level and university grades. This required hard work.

Once accepted as a trainee you need to work full time at the same time as studying for very demanding professional exams in the evening and at weekends.

Once qualified the role requires very long and unpredictable hours - finishing at 10pm is pretty good and there are reasonably frequent finishes at midnight or later. There is an expectation of availability almost at all times (work across all time zones) and at the weekends.

The environment is quite cut throat - certainly plenty of unpleasant people to deal with whether clients or colleagues.

A local salary for my role would be less but I’m not sure by how much.

The salary is good but the personal sacrifice is huge, especially if you have kids or other caring responsibilities and I know many people who quit or burnt out.

Because of the hours and inflexibility it’s not that hard for childcare costs to outstrip or leave almost nothing left of take home pay for a period of years so have at times been essentially working just for the employer pension contribution.

I believe people skills is important factor even more so in some cultures.

Luck - yes, I believe life is not meant to be equal.

I agree, to a point. As a 6 figure earner, the things I've noticed, personally and in my industry, from those that earn big money and those that don't...

We're more willing to take risks, I started my own company and left a successful career at one stage, which catapulted my career forwards.

Happy to pubic speak/network/sell myself - I've been on TV, live radio, spoken in front of hundreds of people, network all the time

Incredibly hard working, I will pull an all nighter, or work a weekend, whereas some people quite rightly have this firm boundary. I've seen it in companies where I work where people will REFUSE to work a minute past 5, fair enough, those people don't earn big figures.

I'm not that intellectual, I have a masters but I passed it by the skin of my teeth!

This is the most interesting post on the thread People who have a problem with authority and are difficult to work with, causing drama after drama seldom get far. The attitude that trying to get along with people and be cooperative at work is a ‘mug’s game’ is often the reason people don’t progress, and not because their face didn’t fit in or whatever.

How come all these high earners are on MN in the middle of the working day 😀

I don’t think most people are that smart . The odds are someone earning 100k plus is smarter in more areas than someone on minimum wage , elements of luck too but generally people who are successful are willing to do what others are not whether that be taking risks , boring job , working longer and harder

We all know business managers do the square root of fuck all.

Lawyers and medics arent often paid 6 figures though.

If it’s a job that requires a high level of skill and training then no - I’m thinking science/ engineering/ IT jobs that not anyone could do.

For general management roles I think it’s about personality and confidence. E.G what takes someone from accountant to CFO is how well they can manage other people and “talk the talk”.

When you meet people in social situations they can be very different to the people in the workplace, very intelligent people sometimes play down their intelligence in social situations whereas less intelligent people tend to want to play theirs up and do a lot of talking

Anyway your question is a bit silly, of course some very high earners are extremely bright ( they may not want to show it outside of work and play down their intelligence) and it’s also possible some high earners get there by luck, hard work, right personality etc

I think it is more about tenacity and strategy. Intelligence alone doesn't guarantee a high paid job.

Interesting point on confidence.

I would say it’s more outward confidence in a lot of cases.

I know lots of really successful, talented, high earners who appear super confident but are wracked with doubt behind the scenes.

It actually makes them better at their job - constantly questioning whether they’re right, learning, improving.

The commonality is (a) despite the above, they are decisive and not afraid to take a position once they’ve questioned themselves - it doesn’t lead to paralysis, and (b) they’re really resilient and not put off by things going wrong.

Because high earners have far more flexibility and control over their calendar than low earners, and more down time where they might be waiting for someone to send something for review, or they’re travelling somewhere for a meeting/conference. People who work fixed hours and leave work at 5pm on the dot, e.g. a factory worker or someone working in retail wouldn’t be allowed to be scrolling on their phone.

You might see someone scrolling on MN in the middle of the day, but you don’t see them responding to emails at 11pm or whilst on holiday.

I'm happy to do a boring job for six figures..... what is the role?

Probably just right place, right time. One of the American managers from an ancillary company to ours, is now stationed here in the UK 'to manage' the UK side of things. I spoke in depth with one of his two assistants at a social gathering and he apparently does almost zero work for an equivalent £420,000 salary!
Two other people were inline for the job he got before him; one in his 40s, experienced & well liked was unexpectedly medically retired. The next guy was unwilling to move to UK due to wife, ex-wife and five kids between them all. So this cocky unqualified cockwomble got a cushie job in another country as he's in his early 30s and single.
His 'roll' of getting new big clients to sign up for long term contracts isn't really need in the UK as people are in need of the company's services and products. There's also almost zero competition in the UK - unlike the US - so he sits about & let's his assistants do everything. He only saw around five clients in the last 12 months, but the main US side of the business doesn't care as they are raking in millions for the UK side of things.
The assistant told me she has free reign most of the time to do what she wants, and set her own hours on her salary and he ignores the two of them and others lower down so long as it's all running smoothly.
'Working remotely' last summer, he was actually staying with a girl he was shagging and didn't do a single bit of anything over 18 working days - all recorded on his activity logs.
The assistants aren't going to do anything to rock the boat as they get well paid for what they do, never get micromanaged and are actually good at the job.

On the flip side when I was working in a shop chain when I was in college, I was passed over for supervisor twice because manager didn't like me & knew he had no chance of getting into my knickers. So the brainless idiot girl he knew he'd have a better chance with got to be supervisor, despite being appalling at maths etc. I left shortly after that for another job while she kept screwing up the figures. Not long after that he was demoted to deputy manager, moved to another store and was forced to apologise to all the remaining staff for screwing up so badly.
, Useless bimbo also left to become a 'nail technician' and she still manages to cock that up!
So luck, who you know and being able to get on with important higher ups seems to be the thing, rather than any intelligence and qualifications etc ...
I'm glad the actual company I work for is much better than that, barring the odd old school Karen types who are only staying in the job till they retire...

This. I was the first person in my family to stay in school past 14. I went to a school that makes people literally gasp in shock at how bad it was. But I was bright, worked hard, applied for a job in a profession that not many people wanted to do, and worked my arse off for 15 years (pulled 20 hour days when needed, worked weekends and bank holidays when required). I then specialised further in a role that hardly anyone wanted to do because of the high stress, long hours culture, and now I’ve taken that experience to get a pretty low stress job that’s completely flexible, lets me work from home, do the school run, walk the dog, go to school events, gives me time off for volunteering, gives me 7 weeks paid holiday plus bank holidays (negotiated), and pays well over six figures.

Keep telling yourself they’re lucky but stupid and see if that helps you get a payrise.

Luck always plays a part (eg I was very fortunate not to be born in a war zone) but ridiculous to say that’s all they’ve got.

id say 60 % can be who you know etc then in theory 40% to carry out the role. unless of couse as you wrote its other factors then its 90% what they want vs 10% skills

I use my salary to take most of the summer off. Have been at the beach with the kids and the dog for most of the day so now we’re chilling before going out for dinner later. HTH.