A fact about America today is that upward mobility and the American dream are alive and well.


It may be taboo to say it, but certain ethnic, religious and national-origin groups are doing strikingly better than Americans overall.


Merely stating the fact that certain groups do better than others — as measured by income, test scores and so on — is enough to provoke a firestorm in America today, and even charges of racism.


The irony is that the facts actually debunk racial stereotypes.


It turns out that for all their diversity, the strikingly successful groups in America today share three traits that, together, propel success.


The first is a superiority complex — a deep-seated belief in their exceptionality.


The second appears to be the opposite — insecurity, a feeling that you or what you’ve done is not good enough.


The third is impulse control.


Any individual, from any background, can have what we call this Triple Package of traits, but research shows that some groups are instilling them more frequently than others, and that they are enjoying greater success.


It’s odd to think of people feeling simultaneously superior and insecure. Yet it’s precisely this unstable combination that generates drive: a chip on the shoulder, a goading need to prove oneself.


Add impulse control — the ability to resist temptation — and the result is people who systematically sacrifice present gratification in pursuit of future attainment.


We know that group superiority claims are dangerous, yet every one of America’s most successful groups tells itself that it’s exceptional.


Insecurity is another anathema in American culture. Feelings of inadequacy are cause for concern or even therapy; parents deliberately instilling insecurity in their children is almost unthinkable. Yet insecurity runs deep in every one of America’s rising groups; and consciously or unconsciously, they tend to instill it in their children.


A central finding in a study of more than 5,000 children led by the sociologist Rubén G. Rumbaut was how frequently kids felt “motivated to achieve” because of an acute sense of obligation to redeem their parents’ sacrifices.


Impulse control runs against the grain of contemporary culture as well. The dominant culture is fearful of spoiling children’s happiness with excessive restraints or demands. By contrast, every one of America’s most successful groups takes a very different view of childhood, inculcating habits of discipline from a very early age.







http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/26/opinion/sunday/what-drives-success.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=0