Hey guys,
In your experiences, have you often encountered individuals with sociopathic behaviors or tendencies/beliefs who wanted to pursue finance, especially high finance? I have always wondered why the media and society vilify those who only think about their desires and lifestyles, albeit at the expense of others, even though many of these 'sociopathic' individuals happen to be extremely educated, disciplined, motivated, and hard-working.
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Well you said it youself, sociopaths operate at the expense of others, and could even hurt others in the process - that's why they are villified. One could still be ambitious without being sociopathic.
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It's not binary though. You could still be striving to achieve your goals, focused on personal development/career without being sociopathic. When I think of sociopathic tendencies, I think of people who intentionally sabotage others, lie often for personal gain, and only act selfishly. While I think sometimes being selfish and ambitious are important for career advancement, people who act at the expense of others will have a hard time building a network.
My old Boss. I swear the people who are managers either are sociopaths or just learn they have to be dicks.
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Yes and no. But mostly since having a family, yes.
You see, I think the guys that are ducks are probably not as much of sociopaths, theyvjust learned that is how to get shit done. The true sociopaths will manipulate you while trying to be your 'friend.'
One thing about dicks is they tend to not have their shit together.
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There are going to be some in every industry. However, I think they are going to be more common in politics than anything else.
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There are definitely more sociopaths in finance than in the general population.. But I think that is more a result of their self-serving ambition than anything else. In other words, I don't think they're necessarily more successful than non-sociopaths in business, but just that it makes sense that they would search out the prestige and money.
I think you can make the argument that being a sociopath has its benefits, but ultimately they're bad for the firm itself. Sociopaths might be able to find some individual success, but having manipulative people willing to lie who are oftentimes too divorced from emotion is more of a liability than something you want to have. Also, I would imagine that the people who do the best at networking are not sociopaths, as they're usually somewhat lacking in social intelligence and have to force their emotions.. The people who are best at networking are relaxed, friendly, interesting people. I guess it really just depends on the sociopath and how "high-functioning" they happen to really be.
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I would hazard to say sociopathic tendencies would actually be of great benefit in this field.
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Pretty sure you mean psychopath. Sociopaths are anti-social serial killer types. Psychopaths are just manipulative and view the world in binary forms.
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Damn I thought there was going to be a webinar about a sociopath who broke into IB from a non-target
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Keep looking...
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