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?

It tends to be redundancy followed by a stint as a contractor or job hopping for the most part in my industry. The contractors earning 100k+ are the same as the people earning 60-80k but often have fewer qualifications and so struggle to get perm jobs.

You don’t need to be the sharpest tool in the box. It’s about drive. Commitment. Hard work and able to influence at the right level!

The people I know who are earning loads seem to be a heck of a lot more "grown up" than me. Not cleverer, not more hard working, just adults adulting and mixing with other adults.

I'm 62, have no clue when or if "grown up" clicks in.

And take a lot of responsibility. Often this is a big part of what you’re paid for.

My son has studied for years and passed lots of exams for his job. It’s one in which he just cannot mess up, so the stress and responsibility are huge.

A lot of it is down to soft skills, being nice to the right people and not making enemies.

It is often about being able to do something that quite a lot of other people can’t do or don’t feel confident enough to do. If most people are capable of doing your job, then you are less likely to paid as much.

It’s just a reasonably skilled job that pays well. I developed novel drugs using my 3 degrees from Oxford, Imperial and Cambridge, and never came close to a 6 figure salary.

I don’t disagree but often hard work or ‘good work’ doesn’t get rewarded in this way. The PP could (in a different life) be just as talented but due to lack of opportunity, less successful. I think for most people need mainly talent but a fair dose of luck too

Its no surprise to see so many people who earn 6 figures on here claiming that it's not just luck but hard work and many other things. Im not denying that's the case but just that most six figure jobs are completely out of whack with other professions where people work just as hard. Its the sector you work in and profitable it is and the amount of decision making you have as part of your role. The more decision making the more ability you have to take part in salary discussions and influence earning capacity. Its a pyramid scheme essentially. I say this as a high earner myself whilst hating the system that gets us to such huge and vastly unfair equality in earnings.

Sector, soft skills as well as being strategic and intelligent tend to be the factors between the well paid and very well paid.

For women to carry on the same trajectory post DC it is having a partner that does the majority of the childcare or being able to pay for a nanny (not nursery).
IME most women's careers plateau after they have DC unless they have the above.

Had to edit this to change text entirely as I’ve commented on the wrong thread… idiot

I’m not 100% sure what you mean but if its that salaries are high because they get set by the people that earn big salaries I’m not sure that’s true. Surely It’s about supply and demand? If I advertise a job for 50k and get a deluge of people who can easily do the job then I might offer 45k next time and see how it goes. Equally if I offer 50k and no one qualified applies then I need to pay more. Don’t you think?

Only the lucky have ambition.

I grew up really poor. I did well at school- really well. Went to a great uni. I’ve never earned much and some of my uni peers have.
The difference between them and me from what I can see is that they aren’t brighter than me but that they saw that lifestyle as more important. So they were prepared to work crazy hours for their career.
I’ve never been willing to do that because to me other things like more time with my family was more important.
looking back now, I don’t know who was right. They will definitely have a more comfortable retirement but I had a better life than them when we were younger (got to spend more time with family and less time at work etc). I had less money but I never felt I missed out. Maybe I will when I retire and have a pretty modest income and they can go off and do a lot more. But I’m not sure.
if I could do it again I would probably make the same choices work wise but try and spend a bit less and save a bit more.
in summary- looking back I don’t believe it’s down to privilege in the main. I think it’s priorities and hard work that get those high high salaries and I still don’t think, on balance, it’s worth it.

Depends what you mean by smart. Often some of the most important jobs, that a person has to be very clever to do well, are not particularly well paid. But if they're happy-or at least happy to think they're using their brain to make a massive difference for people in the future-that still makes them intelligent. Maybe it makes us stupid as a society that we don't pay well for certain jobs, like midwifery, teaching, counselling, social work etc.
But I agree luck comes into it a lot. I don't know many people who make that much money, but one of the women I know who does was very close to a serious accident (a few cars away) that left others very badly injured/with lasting disabilities, and while I know some people with serious disabilities do achieve great things and/or earn a lot, it can be much harder for them to do so, not least because of discrimination.
Another one (I don't know this woman personally) ended up making money out of modelling, and it was sheer luck she was spotted at a mall because a friend dragged her out that day.
More worryingly, new articles are now saying that even getting a summer job these days can be difficult if mummy and daddy don't have rich friends/connections to get you one. My friend has a teenage son who seems lovely, very sociable and polite who apparently is also very bright, and he's not managed to get one. Doesn't bode well for the future, or for my kids, if you either need rich, connected parents, or a lot of luck, to even get one of those now!

I think it's much more subtle than that. Its the fact that you can influence shape and size much more effectively so you have opportunities to empire build. You can help set salaries of people below you which of course then influence yours. Supply and demand does come into it of course.

A lot of clever people excel at university but don't manage their careers well. They work hard but don't necessarily focus their efforts in the areas that are of most value to others/ those senior to them. They don't spend enough time putting themselves in the shoes of their managers/ those above them and thinking about how they can be most useful/ impressive and , as a result, get promoted. They sit back and wait for someone to notice all their wonderful hard work and 'give them an A*' rather than realising they need to communicate what they've done effectively/ ensure it's really accessible/ of use to others. They also don't think strategically enough about taking roles which give easier paths to progression/ promotion
I only worked this stuff out at least a decade into my career!

This is rubbish and so condescending. I grew up really poor. My dad sold drugs from our house. The police came round a lot. Often we missed meals. Many of my friends had similar lives. No one would call them lucky.
And many of them had ambition. It’s so offensive to pretend that people who are poor or don’t have ideal lives have no ambition. We do.

I had immigrant working class parents who barely completed high school. I went to a high school that some publication described as "working class gritty". I worked like a dog at high school and university. I picked my own subjects and degrees - I have two in related subjects. I changed my voice and vocabulary. Yes. I have been successful and while my parents were supportive and proud I did the heavy lifting on my own. I look back and feel amazed at where I started out and the unshakeable confidence and drive I had as teenager. No, I dont think it's luck or parental influence which makes a person successful. In fact, I worry that the path has been a bit too smoothed for one of my children.

Hmm, yes ok, I think you’re probably right about setting the narrative for what is important (beyond the direct revenue generating roles which have always been more meritocratic).

Dh and I come from working class families and worked bloody hard to get to out 6 figure salaries. From getting through university (first of both out families) and working for government bodies and international companies. And I would say the same for many people we came across throughout our careers as we moved through the ranks…however, there are those that play the political game better and are willing to be the ‘bag men/women’. They do tend to get there a bit easier and are willing to sell their souls along the way 😉

DH and I have a fairly decent household income (£110k) and our stretch goal is £200k within the next 5 years. We used to look at other people earning these big salaries and think ‘why them and not us?’ We just came to the conclusion it was because they were bothering to apply for the jobs and we weren’t. Once we pulled our fingers out we started getting better jobs. I had a promotion last year and DH had a promotion last week. People in better paid jobs aren’t better than anyone else, they just decided to go for it (and it worked!)

It certainly can be luck or connections, I'm sure. Personally, with the high earners I know in my life, I can see why they are high earners, in a good way. My DH is a high earner – he is intelligent (emotionally intelligent too), very likeable, hard working, and just a lovely person.

I am going to sound like a twat now but I don’t care because it’s an anonymous forum 😂

I’m white, blonde, quite pretty and went to a grammar school. My parents weren’t wealthy but I had a good start in life and I’ve always been charming and got on with people. I did very well at school but not great at uni (got a 2:2 in maths from a good uni but should have done much better). I earn about 150k now but I think my ‘luck’ has been how receptive people are to being around me - I’ve not had to battle any kind of discrimination. I’m clever and I work hard but I can imagine being equally clever and working equally hard and ending up in a very different place.