Want to earn more money? You need to have these THREE personality traits

Whether we agree or not, most of us work to earn money. It is our biggest motivation as well as our weakest point. But have you ever wondered when everyone works equally hard, why do some earn more money while a few take home much less every month? A study has found a solution to this disturbing question and suggested a combination of three personality traits that might help a person to earn more money.

University of Copenhagen economist Miriam Gensowski analysed data to study the effect of personality on earnings and achievements and came across some interesting observations.

The economist Gensowski based her research on the data collected from the Terman Study of the Gifted, a psychological study that observed over 1,000 participants from California who had a IQs over 140 (IQ between 90 and 110 is considered average and over 120 as superior). The age of the participants ranged from 18 to 75 years.

Though all the subjects had super high IQ and were equally gifted, not all were successful and earned equal amount of money. Interestingly, Gensowski discovered a connection between their personalities and how much they earned.

The three personality traits, according to Gensowski, that are linked to higher income are— conscientiousness and extroversion and being disagreeable.

While the first two traits—hardworking and being a people's person—make sense but the third personality trait came as a big surprise. According to Gensowski, hardworking people normally tend to be less agreeable with people who take their work less seriously.

After comparing the collected data, Gensowski found that men who are hardworking and extroverted reaped the benefits of their hard work in later stage of their life, likely between their 40s and 60s. Moreover, men who are nice to others are more likely to earn significantly less amount than men who have a less agreeable personality.

According to experts, agreeable people face a hard time when they have to give a feedback on an employee’s performance. While a disagreeable man won’t mince his words when he has to give an honest feedback. And if you want to be a leader in any field, you must be able to appreciate as well a criticize the people who work with you.

If we have to name one leader who had all these traits, it’s none other than Steve Jobs. Besides being a hardworking man, he was known for his famous disagreements with his co-workers. He never hesitated from taking risks or asking questions when he had any doubts and no wonder he reached the pinnacle of success at quite a young age.

So, does it pay to be a disagreeable man? Remember, this is just one of the traits and if you start being disagreeable without being a hard worker or an extrovert, it surely won’t work its magic.

(All images used here are representational)