Overconfident people from prosperous backgrounds succeed, even if they’re not that smart

UncleScoopy

“Incompetent, privileged individuals are more likely to act like they’re clever — and, yes, people believe them”

Gosh, if only there were some prominent examples.

17 thoughts on “Overconfident people from prosperous backgrounds succeed, even if they’re not that smart”

  1. Such a cute little saying. Do you happen to have one for when a power-hungry woman thinks she successfully rigged an election in her favor, with help from the FBI and CIA, not to mention the sitting president – but somehow she fails in her coup attempt and her crimes are exposed?

  2. So confident people, with excellent, polished social skills who dress well are able to get ahead?? Oh the horror…….

    What a joke. They deserve to get ahead. Soft skills, confidence, and presentation matter. This is purely haters making excuses for not getting the corner office. If you were the best overall package, you’ll get it. The cream always rises to the top no matter how much liberals try to handicap them.

    1. And I don’t come from a privileged background. I just can’t stand excuses for failure. I worked my ass off for everything I have and I used education, soft skills, ingenuity, talent, intelligence, perseverance, and luck. And I dress well too. Sometimes I even wear custom tailored suits.

      1. And you’d still be better off if you had a father that covered your business losses.

    2. Well, like Kesey said: cream rises and shit floats. They can look alike, but if you pay attention you can tell which one you’re seeing.

    3. “Soft skills” – give me a break. Substance, brains, or basic ability are not part of the necessary package then? The liberals crack pretty much shows your lack of the second. I’m conservative myself, but that is so stupid.

      And Trump would qualify as polished on which planet?

      1. Having been in business at fairly high levels, I’d have to say that the cream does NOT usually rise to the top. It typically stops a couple of levels down. The guys with good Rolodexes and good people skills rise to the top because:

        1. They have good Rolodexes and people skills.

        AND

        2. They can hire the cream to work for them.

        When you go into a new company as a consultant, as I did dozens of times in my career, you have to find the men and women who actually know what makes the company succeed or fail. One time in 100 that description is filled by the guy at the top, like Steve Jobs or Mike Critelli. The other 99 times those people are about two levels down from the top. You never go to the CEO or the V.P. Marketing or the CFO, because those people only know top-line summaries of what their smart underlings have told them, and they often misunderstand or misstate even that. You go to the guy that the CFO (or the V.P. Marketing) goes to when somebody asks him or her a question of substance that he can’t bullshit his way through. Those people are easy to find. You ask the V.P. marketing a question that requires real knowledge, and he tells you to ask Bill over there in the corner. Bill, and a few others like him, are the people you will spend the most of your time with during the rest of your project.

        In a way the consulting process is unfair, because I often found myself making my final presentation to the CEO and getting all kinds of praise for observations that he could have gotten by just asking Bill directly.

        1. Agree 100%.

          Maybe at one point these executives had fire in their belly on their way up, but most of the time they seem more consumed with how to manage their investment options, or how to make the company bigger and head up more resources to increase their own compensation.

          You want out of touch, look at recently history and Verizon’s purchase of AOL and Yahoo to form ‘Oath’ – which has since failed and basically dissolved.

          Who in their right mind with a PULSE thought that was a good business move? And it’s not just this, its constant. Between 70-90% of mergers and acquisitions fail.

          Unless the CEO is one of the initial founders early on, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand one’s motivations to go up to that level. Success, greed, power .. those are the motivators. “Career” executives who move company to company have no higher motive for the company than their own selfish purposes. They don’t care if they’re selling pizza or producing toilet paper, they’re just there because of the position.

          I think that’s what separates the Jobs and Bezos from the others. I’m not going to pretend Jobs is a nice guy or I’m a Bezos fan, but at *least* they were initial creators. They started from the ground up and believe in that purpose, they’re not bouncing around from company to company mindlessly as a career executive. There’s a hell of a lot more competence in the guy who build something, rather than the guy who is looking for something.

        2. In my experience, the cream does not always rise to the top, but the bullshit always does!

        3. I wasn’t referencing large cap bureaucratic companies. I’m talking about the 600,000 small businesses that’s start every year. I understand the frustration of those who get stuck in middle management. They think because they do the work they should be in charge. However that’s not what gets you to the top. See my comment before. It’s a combination of tangible and intangible skills. The most valuable person at any organization however is the CEO. Period. You may not respect what it takes to get to the top but unfortunately those “bs skills and their “rolodex” are what cover payroll.

          1. The CEO is the person at the company who is best at funneling its value to himself. That is different from being valuable.
            Scott Adams wrote a column about how most CEOs could be replaced by a sockpuppet or a Magic 8-Ball with very little effect on performance. It was a comic article but there was a lot of truth to it.

      2. This is clearly a liberal perspective of the world. If you are truly a conservative than you would recognize this article for the drivel it is. And I’m sorry I didn’t name every single trait. Yes, substance brains and basic ability matter but I’d assume that’s understood as table stakes. Btw, this article is not about Donald trump and nowhere did I mention him. Stop projecting.

  3. Studies like this, and multiple others, show what a broken entitlement based system we have. Working in one of ‘those’ types of places, you almost wonder how some people making six plus figures in a low cost of living area wake up to put their shoes on. If they didn’t know how to hit buttons on conference calls, I’m not sure they would have a job.

    Just goes to show, its the combination of overconfident bullshit artistry, who you know in high places, and if you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth determines what type of life you will have more than about anything else.

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