What 88% Of Top Earners Have in Common and How You Can Succeed When You’re The Opposite

Surprise everybody: be different from the top dogs and still make it!

I tried to be one of them and make it in their world.

It didn’t work out. They could smell the bs every time.

I was their exact opposite and it showed. I couldn’t fool them and I couldn’t fool myself into being somebody else either.

Something had to give and it wasn’t the top earners. It was me.

I gave up trying to be them and I became myself. That’s when I became successful.

I spent my 20s and the best portion of my 30s working for a world-class American corporation. At the time they were the number one household goods company in the world.

They had it all: the megalomaniac take-over-the-world mentality, the endless meetings, the swapping of top management from one location to another one on a different continent, the prints on the wall with the “vision” for the next few years and a well-crafted set of principles that showed the world just how serious and ethical they were.

A few years later they were fined a few hundred million dollars for operating a cartel with their main competitor.

I laughed. We all did. But the principles and vision stayed on the wall.

I remember one time when they brought us all in to give us personality tests as part of what they presented as getting to know ourselves and each other.

They were actually meant to let them know if the employees’ personalities fit what they wanted in an upper management position.

The test given was the famous MBTI.

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, or MBTI, is a popular personality test that claims to differentiate 16 distinct personality types, distinguishing extroverts from introverts, the sensing from the intuitive, the thinkers from the feelers, and the judgers from the perceivers. Though widely criticized by professional psychologists as pseudoscience, the MBTI is still beloved by HR departments and career counselors around the globe. (mentalfloss.com)

After the test, we were also informed that the great majority of corporate higher management all fall under one personality type: ENTJ, also known as The Fieldmarshall (or Commander).

The clue is in the name, right?

This is the same personality type that naturally wins in life. The ones who find their way to the top in a sea of struggling faceless losers.

The ENTJ, which stands for extraversion (E), intuition (N), thinking (T), and judging (J) is defined by 4 main characteristics:

• Extraversion

Outgoing, energetic, and socially confident, the Fieldmarshalls love to be around people, be the center of attention, and lead others while becoming top earners themselves.

Think of any gameshow host ever. Or Donald Trump.

• Intuition

The fieldmarshalls act with the big picture in mind regardless of what’s happening right in front of them. They choose abstract concepts over on-the-spot sensing of the situation, always supporting innovation and forward thinking.

This definition has Elon Musk’s photo next to it in the dictionary.

• Thinking

Fieldmarshalls choose thinking over feeling and reason over emotions of any kind. They base their decisions on the logical thing to do and they are always objective in their choices, analytical, and sometimes very direct to the point of being blunt.

Sounds like fun, but only if you’re Einstein in the lab, right?

• Judgment

Fieldmarshalls are doing their best to make everything as organized and predictable as possible. They prefer structure and will have 5 backup plans just so they don’t have to deal with spontaneity and flexibility.

If you ask me, it takes all the fun out of life.

Is this you?

If it’s not, keep reading. You are not a lost cause to making top dollar. On the contrary!

Because you’ve probably got it better without even knowing.

Here’s what you can do if you’ve got the opposite personality to the top earners of the world.

Introversion vs. extroversion

The world loves extroverts, there’s no doubt about it. Extroverts make people feel good about themselves with a bright smile and a pat on the back.

That’s why the world will choose the extrovert they know rather than the reclusive introvert, even when the introvert is much better at their job.

Introverts have a lot of intrinsic power but their lack of communication and their refusal to adhere to social convention makes them unpredictable and misunderstood.

Introverts, don’t fret!

That’s the world of the past. With the huge developments in technology in the past few years, introverts can present themselves to the world without ever having to see it face to face.

Videos, messages, DMs, comments, and social media engagement are much easier to do by the introvert than the typical face-to-face confrontation.

Plus, introverts have much more time available to get good at what they do because they don’t need the constant social stimulation that consumes countless hours of the extrovert’s life.

They get their energy from solitude, studying, and perfecting their craft.

I’m an introvert and it’s also my case. People wonder how I manage to write as much as I do. It’s easy — because I don’t need to be out having fun. My fun is spending time with my keyboard, writing and it shows.

Intuition vs. sensing

Aka abstract vs. pragmatic.

Imagine a world made of only abstract art. How would that feel? Kind of difficult to navigate, don’t you think?

It falls to the sensing ones of us to interpret the world the way it is, not the way it can be.

Most Fieldmarshalls will rely on a person who is in touch with reality to get a sense of what is actual, current, and tangible.

If you rely on senses more than anything else, you will be the one who notices details that others forget and facts that nobody pays attention to.

You are the eyes and the ears of the world, a practical being that relies on experience to become a top earner themselves.

Your down-to-earth approach to life is vital if you’re interested in fields like civil engineering, economics, financial analysis, or medicine. Even police officers and lawyers need to have a personality that is keen on facts and observing the real world.

And I just named two of the most well-known top-earning jobs out there: doctor and lawyer.

You’ve got a lot to give! Don’t sell yourself short.

Thinking vs. feeling:

People who use feelings to make decisions operate by their own set of rules rather than predetermined concepts of right and wrong.

And can be some of the most successful people in history. They are game changers. They are the ones who change the world for the better, who overturn unfair laws and create a better environment for everybody around with their dedication to what is right.

If you find yourself being driven by your feelings, it’s most probably because you’re trying to make things right and prioritize the emotions and opinions of everybody involved.

That’s why people like you work wonders in the fields of the heart: art, teaching, writing, medicine of any kind, or psychology.

While these are not usually fields that yield top earners, when they do, those are crème de la crème, and they do what most everyone else wants to do.

Judging vs. perceiving

If you make plans, you’ll probably end up where you want to be.

But if you go with the flow, you’ll also have fun.

And that’s what the top earners are looking for.

The world of the future is hell-bent on creativity. Soon we’ll have AI to do all the planning, the list-making, and the scheduling for us. We’ll have to take care of the creativity because that’s what machines can’t (yet) do.

A lot of people can’t do that either. But the perceiving ones of us can.

They are flexible, spontaneous, and keep things open-ended. There’s no telling what can come from that, but there will be a lot of demand for soft skills and flexibility, adaptability, and a curious nature that is able to find new paths of success.

All these will be the tools that the perceivers will use to become top earners and shatter the status quo.

Conclusion:

This applies to all areas of life. There isn’t only one way to win in life. Maybe there used to be, and maybe it’s easier if you go that way.

But you can be who you are, leverage your personal strong points, and still be a top earner. There are endless possibilities.

You don’t have to be like them. You can be like you.

A top earner in your own right. And isn’t success so much sweeter when you can succeed not playing by the rules?

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