Remember the 80:20 rule? Or better still the law of the vital few — 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts.
Well, it also applies to wealth distribution — 80 percent of the wealth in the world is owned by 20 percent of the people.
Yes, the top 20% own 80% of everything. The 80/20 rule is more prevalent now than ever before.
Why does this happen? Why do a few people enjoy the bulk of the rewards in life? Are people rewarded for their talent and intelligence?
“Some people work more hours than average and some work less, but nobody works a billion times more hours than anybody else. And yet when it comes to the rewards for this work, some people do have billions of times more wealth than other people,” writes MIT Technology Review.
Here is the bitter truth: the most successful people are not the most talented among us — luck, cumulative advantage, social capital and grit have a lot to do with their wealth.
Success is not exclusively due to personal qualities such as talent, intelligence, skills, efforts or risk-taking.
According to Alessandro Pluchino at the University of Catania in Italy, luck has a lot to do with success. “It is evident that the most successful individuals are also the luckiest ones.” “And the less successful individuals are also the unluckiest ones.” “The maximum success never coincides with the maximum talent, and vice-versa,” they said.
There is more to success than pure intelligence. Success sometimes arises out of a predictable and powerful set of circumstances and opportunities.
It is also often rooted in hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities that compound over time, a process sociologists like to call “accumulative advantage.”
These are advantages that tend to snowball into greater and greater opportunities over time.
Just as a few dollars invested in the stock market can grow to thousands over a lifetime, a small advantage can compound over the months or years, leading to huge successes later on in life.
“It is those who are successful, in other words, who are most likely to be given the kinds of special opportunities that lead to further success. It’s the rich who get the biggest tax breaks. It’s the best students who get the best teaching and most attention. And it’s the biggest nine- and ten-year-olds who get the most coaching and practice. Success is the result of what sociologists like to call “accumulative advantage,” explains Malcolm Gladwell, in his book, Outliers: The Story of Success.
Don’t get me wrong, the people at the very top work much, much harder to stay there or keep performing at their very best. But they are likely to benefit from hidden advantages.
More often than not, successful people don’t succeed alone. They are products of specific places and environments. In other words, the small initial edge leads to more opportunities to get better and better.
Many successful people are also in a constant state of adaptation — continually unlearning old ‘rules’ and relearning new ones.
We live in an ever-changing world which is unlikely to ever slow down. What mattered yesterday (e.g. skill, knowledge, social circle, etc.) very much so might not be worth a dime tomorrow.
Wealthy people keep evolving — they are constantly improving their social capital — connections and personal relationships. Change used to be slow and incremental: now it is rapid, radical and unpredictable.
“Developing a network of talented people to work with — sometimes closely, sometimes loosely — is an essential part of a great career,” writes Sam Altman.
The ability to keep an open-mind, acquire better knowledge and improve your social capital can have a huge influence on your success.
Beyond luck, social capital and cumulative advantage, grit (mix of passion, perseverance, and self-discipline) can also contribute to your success.
The ability to change (or be changed) to fit new circumstances — is a crucial skill for success in any endeavour.
In his book, “Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of NIKE” Phil Knight said:
“So that morning in 1962 I told myself: Let everyone else call your idea crazy . . . just keep going. Don’t stop. Don’t even think about stopping until you get there, and don’t give much thought to where “there” is. Whatever comes, just don’t stop.”
Grit is associated with perseverance, resilience, ambition, and the need for achievement. It involves maintaining goal focused effort for extended periods of time. The good news is, you can cultivate or better still grow your grit. It’s a skill that can be learned and practiced over time.
. . .
Greatness and extraordinary success aren’t reserved for a preordained few. It is available to you and to everyone. Don’t wait for opportunities, create them.
You can create your own accumulative advantage with the choices you make and the small actions you take every day — developing the right success habits can open more opportunities for you than you realise. Take control of your own potential and shape yourself into the person you wish to be.
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This post was previously published on Mind Cafe and is republished here with permission from the author.
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Photo credit: Chrisb Marquez