We live in a meritocracy, right?
Where hard work can get you security and a high-paying job? That's the American Dream. But is it just a fantasy, or is it reality? (I'm reminded of Bohemian Rhapsody ...)
This question is similar to the dilemma economists face. They like to model society as a set of interacting, self-interested agents. To some extent, it works — after all, economic models do capture most of the ways things are.
But — with both the economists' model and the American Dream — how often have we seen (or even benefited from) corruption in government or business, where businesses or governments have acted in a way that ultimately hurts themselves? Such corruption can still be described by economic models, but they need to be modified to account for individuals forsaking their fiduciary responsibility.
For example, my grandfather likes to tell a story about his time working as an independent salesman for a motor company.
He was offering a business in Chicago a significantly better deal than the business's contract with General Electric. After a Friday of negotiations, he retired for the weekend with a contract signing scheduled for Monday.
Monday, he got to the business and learned that the executive had canceled the appointment and refused to meet with him. What happened? Turns out GE flew the man and his wife down to a Caribbean resort over the weekend and promised a second vacation if they'd stick with the GE contract — even though it hurt the man's business.
In a similar vein, a recent study by a Purdue chemical engineer applied statistical mechanics to wage distributions. If you make certain free-market assumptions, the proportion of a business that is paid in a particular price range should follow a particular form. It so happens that it does follow this form almost exactly for 90 percent of the company's employees. For the top 10 percent of employees, the distribution is entirely different: They're significantly overpaid.
Why? The common-sense explanation (so take it with a grain of salt) is incest between upper management and the board. If the CEO is golfing buddies with three of the five guys on the board, it doesn't take much imagination to see why the board might decide to retain the CEO and give him an extra bonus, even if his performance doesn't warrant it.
What's the moral of these stories?
In every case, people end up doing favors for their friends instead of perfectly following their responsibility to the business.
The same thing happens in government — witness the hiring process of the Iraqi Interim Governing Council, where applicants were screened for ideological purity and past contributions to the Republican Party instead of competence in the job at hand. (Not to say Democrats are innocent; for example, see how Kennedy bought Daly, Chicago and the 1960 election, or Obama doing favors for union leaders now.)
Less damning examples occur every day. The broader lesson, then, is that good relationships are necessary for success in life.
If you're on a person's good side, they'll be more likely to do small favors for you. I'm reminded of a conversation I had with a businessman who, when he started his job, treated the secretaries to lunch every few months and got to know them; one of the results was his paperwork always got done neatly and ahead of time. This is not to downplay competence, but to emphasize that competence is not the only factor that determines success. In fact, I'd even argue that competence is subordinate to relationship skills. Insofar as competence permits you to build and maintain professional and personal relationships, it will get you ahead in life. The converse holds, too: If you're incompetent, you will often have difficulty maintaining professional relationships.
But relationships are often the deciding factor. So, building and maintaining relationships really ought to be a key focus as you work through college. (I don't mean to denigrate relationships for their own sake but instead to focus on how relationships can be beneficial to you.) For example, if you can get to know the professor, he'll be more likely to help you out with difficult course material or write a glowing recommendation letter. If you can get to know classmates, they'll be more likely to provide professional contacts in the future or even provide help when you don't understand material.
The list is endless. So remember that in the end, it's all about relationships.
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