“If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.”
– Jim Rohn
When we’re young, we ask a lot of questions.
We enter this world with a burst of curiosity, as there are so many things for us to learn.
Throughout our adolescence, we’re given answers to some of the questions we ask, and these answers come from different sources.
They come from our parents, peers, teachers, social media influencers, and even strangers. But, regardless of where these answers come from, we accept them.
For what other choice do we have? We’re innocent at a young age, and as a result, we embark into the real world with a predefined set of mental models.
Although we’re given answers to many of our questions, there are still questions out there that we never thought of asking, because who really wants to face the truth?
For example, what is the structure of a dominance hierarchy, and how does this affect the nature of success?
According to Jordan Peterson, a renowned professor and author, the dominance hierarchy is a mechanism that selects heroes and breeds them.
In layman’s terms, a dominance hierarchy is a ranking system amongst members of an animal social group.
Although some think they are social constructs, multiple studies from credible sources cite the evolutionary origins of hierarchies within human nature.
From companies to universities to athletics, dominance hierarchies are everywhere, regardless of where you look.
If the success of a certain pursuit involves the mastery of a skill, and if more than one individual is striving to achieve success in this pursuit, there will be a dominance hierarchy.
One should internalize this concept because, in any given dominance hierarchy, there will always be people at the top, people in the middle, and people at the bottom.
And in all cases, the proportion of people at the top is significantly less than the proportion of people in the middle or at the bottom.
As reflected in this pyramid, the structure of any dominance hierarchy is designed in a way that only allows a minority of the group to rise to the top.
Extrapolating outward from this, the prevalence of dominance hierarchies within our society explains a lot about the nature of success.
For any type of achievement that is recognized by members of our society, there is always an elite echelon. For athletics, it’s a professional sports league like the NBA. For actors, it’s Hollywood. For business students, it’s a prestigious company like McKinsey…And the list goes on.
But why even bother with aiming for the top?
Now, of course, there are outliers who have different values, so rising to the top in their profession isn’t as important to them.
If you’re born into the top 1%, then congratulations for winning the genetic lottery: this article isn’t for you. If your end goal is to enjoy life to the fullest by maximizing your happiness, then more power to you: this article isn’t for you.
But for those of us with a lot of ambition, regardless of your career path, there will be a holy grail for only a select few.
The incentive to get to the top of a hierarchy is different for each individual, but generally speaking, it’s at the top for where all the benefits are reaped.
It’s where all the money, all the connections, and all the opportunities are, and that’s why these places are considered prestigious in the eyes of others.
Now am I advocating for one to chase prestige for the sake of prestige? No, as this will just result in a prestige trap, but this is a topic for another day.
What I am advocating for, however, is that it’s in your best interest to at least aim for the top in whatever you end up doing.
But be warned, looking at the numbers may upset your stomach…
When analyzing the chance one has to get to this top echelon, one will quickly learn that the odds are stacked against them.
In each example I gave–NBA, Hollywood, MBB–less than 1% of people aspiring to get to these places actually end up getting there…And this phenomenon of the top 1% doesn’t just apply to careers.
Extrapolating outward and looking at wealth creation, the concept of the top 1% is more apparent. According to Bloomberg, the top 1% of U.S. earners hold more wealth than all of the middle class combined…Let that sink in for a bit.
Again, it’s easy to make note of the enormous difference in the benefits reaped from the top 1% compared to the remainder of the hierarchy, and this distinction is universal across all hierarchies.
Now I’m not here to propose some utopian solution to make everything more “fair.” No, I’m here to tell you that life, and the nature of success, is fundamentally unfair.
Whether we like it or not, we live in a competitive world, and all competitions result in winners and losers (unless you want a participation trophy at the YMCA).
With all of this in mind, I strongly encourage you to reflect on your specific competitive advantage. That is, from a combination of both your nature and nurture, what are you inherently good at compared to other people?
What’s something that, if you and somebody else spent 50 hours doing that thing, your rate of production would be at least a 2x multiple compared to Person X’s rate of production?
Knowing the answers to these questions may be the difference between rising to the top and staying in the middle of your hierarchy.
Regardless of what you decide to pursue, the goal should be to rise to the top 1% of your industry, and the most effective way to do that is to:
1) Find your competitive advantage
2) Identify a dominance hierarchy that values your competitive advantage
3) Grind like it’s life-or-death, and most importantly…
4) Hope that luck works out in your favor.
Because even with this framework, the odds are still stacked against you. The red pill to swallow is that it’s impossible to be in 100% control of your life outcomes.
Sure, it definitely helps to strive towards a goal with a lot of energy and hustle, but nothing is guaranteed in the end. There will always be things that are out of our control.
If you have been striving to get to the top 1% of your particular hierarchy, but you haven’t been able to break in, I would re-evaluate if you’re in an industry that values your competitive advantage or not.
At the same time, I would accept the notion that this is the scenario that is most likely to happen, but this should only be fuel to your fire.
Just because chance is an element in the success equation doesn’t mean that I’m going to throw in the towel and call it quits.
It’s why we cheer for the underdog when watching movies. It’s why stories, like David and Goliath, get passed down from generation to generation.
If we get excited from watching somebody else break the odds, then imagine the amount of satisfaction we’ll get from doing it ourselves.
Through a more philosophical lens, we are all going to die and we only get one life, so why not at least try to aim for the top?
In one million simulated universes, I would choose the one where I’m at the top of my field every single time.
I don’t know about you, but I’d rather be delusional and be proven wrong than be realistic and be proven right.
At least this way, you’ll land among the stars.
JL