Australians who are paid more than AU$150,000 per year have come forward to reveal what they believe is ‘the secret’ to earning high incomes.
In today’s capitalist-driven society, on occasion, it’s nice to ponder being rich. Of course, many are simply born into wealthy families and (unfairly) never have to lift a finger to afford the finer things in life.
However, some are self-made and earn themselves high incomes, which leads many low to mid-income earners to wonder whether there’s some secret key to success… that we can all learn and then become rich too. Lucky for us, high-income earners are revealing all.
A recent Reddit thread asked for people who earn more than AU$150,000 per year to share what skills and qualities they attribute their financial success to.
“Luck” and “privilege” were the most popular responses. In fact, user bitsperhertz believes hard work and networking actually have nothing to do with getting a job that pays big bucks.
“Stable household, loving parents, good teachers, healthy friendships and relationships. A clear headspace buys more creativity and innovation than any sort of expensive education. Combine that with low-cost (HECS) access to tertiary education and it becomes a very easy path to a high income.
Under these circumstances it has very little to do with individual hard work or networking, you are after all nothing more than a product of your environment.”
Reddit user bitsperhertz
Many echoed this sentiment and responded with their own experiences in terms of luck and privilege and high incomes. One Reddit user directly replied, “I had every one of the privileges you list, and I couldn’t agree more. This is pure luck and structural advantage. It’s entirely why I am where I am today, and we should all openly acknowledge it,” while another wrote:
“I like to think where I’ve ended up is luck but really a big part of that luck is privilege. My parents both hold degrees and I went to private school with the expectation of going to uni and getting a good job. I’m surrounded by friends and family who all work stable careers and generally have stable relationships.”
Reddit user JellyfishOk6515
Similarly, user FrustratedLogician answered the Reddit thread with, “I think working hard is very important but you can still easily fail because more lucky people will beat you by just putting modest effort. I have seen this occur so many times at university and professionally that I tend to respond to people as I did here: I am [a] relatively lucky person and no, I do not work very hard to be where I am.”
However, some high-income earners believed their wealth came about simply because they chose the right industry to work in. For example, Reddit user stmartinst wrote, “Picking a career that had a reasonable potential to have a high income. I’m not necessarily smarter or harder working than many of the people I went to school with, but if you’re e.g. a primary school teacher then there’s only so far most people can go salary-wise.”
There were a few users on a salary of AU$150K or higher who gave less common reasons as to why they earn so much. One of which was confidence.
“Confidence from high self-esteem. No skill, knowledge, experience or head-start can match the momentum you will get from confidence.”
Reddit user FutureSynth
Another less commonly known secret to a high income was patience.
“Be patient in your role; play the long game.”
Reddit user covertc
Of course, some responses to the thread were jokes. We here at DMARGE particularly enjoyed Reddit user Early_Instruction782 quoting Mr Burns from The Simpsons – “Family. Religion. Friendship. These are the three demons you must slay if you wish to succeed in business.” Hilarious.
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