Worldwide Success

A study published by Norwegian scientists in the journal Science back in July claimed that first-born children have a slightly higher IQ than their siblings.  The study suggests that this slight advantage was enough to make them more likely to find success in business and in life in general.

The USA Today took this idea that first-born children are more likely to succeed one step further by asking the world's largest CEO organization, Vistage, to survey it's members about the birth order question.  Interestingly, Vistage received 1,582 responses indicating that 43% of the CEO respondents were first-born, 23% born last and 33% somewhere in the middle.

A smaller survey conducted directly by the USA Today received 155 responses from CEOs, of which 59% were first-born, 18% were born last and 23% were in the middle.

These surveys are hardly scientific, but are they on to something?  Do first-born children have a definite advantage over their siblings, making them more likely to succeed in business?  Ben Dattner, a psychology professor at New York University who has studied this subject believes the answer is yes.  According to him first-born are more extroverted, assertive, confident, dominant, task-oriented, and more concerned about position and rank, which makes them more likely to succeed in business.

Intuitively this seems to make sense.  First-born are expected to lead, and in some cases care for their younger brothers and sisters, which allows them to learn important leadership skills at a young age.  They also experience first-hand the fear of loosing the attention of their parents and the anxiety of having to share their parents' love with the new children that enter the household.  One could argue that this fear and anxiety gets carried over to the business world in the form of fear and anxiety about losing position and rank, making the first-born more competitive and conscientious of their status.

However, there are many successful CEOs that are not first-born.  Later-born CEOs are more likely to take risks and challenge the status quo as they seek alternative ways to blaze their own path, just as they had to do to prove themselves to their older siblings.

Are we reading too much into the effects of order of birth on success?  Or was there wisdom in the old tradition of the first-born inheriting the family business?  There are so many factors that influence one's success in business and in life that one could easily challenge the idea that something as mundane as birth order could be a reliable factor in predicting future success.

What do you think?  Are these studies and surveys telling us something meaningful or are these just interesting academic discussions with no real practical applications?  You decide.

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