The Four

more predators. The good news: the big fish in the big pond has a phat
life. The Four Horsemen demonstrate this on a mega-scale.
There is a marketplace corollary to this phenomenon, where the
value of the top-tier products in a category explodes, even as the value
of lesser products collapses. In rare books, Amazon has given once-
obscure and hard-to-find editions global exposure. Predictably, the
resulting increase in demand for a fixed supply has led to higher prices
—for the finest masterworks. But it has also illuminated the
abundance of run-of-the-mill books and given the buyer exponentially
more choices below the top tier. Which, just as predictably, has had
the opposite effect, crushing the value of these non-top-tier books.
The same thing is happening in labor markets. Thanks to
LinkedIn, everyone is on the global job market all the time. If you are
exceptional, there are thousands of firms looking for, and finding, you.
If you are good, you are now competing with tens of millions of other
“good” candidates all over the planet—and your wages may stagnate or
decline.
The top dozen professors at Stern are in demand globally and get
paid $50,000 or more to speak at a lunch. I’d venture their average
annual income is $1 million to $3 million. The rest (“good”) are now
competing with Khan Academy and the University of Adelaide (both
offer “good,” the former online). These “good” professors teach
executive education for modest extra income, or complain about the
dean in a primal scream for relevance, as they make a fraction of what
their (marginally) better colleagues make. The difference between
good and great can be 10 percent or less, but the delta in rewards is
closer to 10 times. The “good” professor’s average annual income is
$120,000 to $300,000, and they are overpaid—and easily replaced.
The university can’t fire them, thanks to tenure, so it pretends to be
concerned and (mostly) ignores them. It makes them department
chairs, assigns them to committees, and comes up with a host of
excuses for their mediocrity.
So, if not naturally great, what behaviors help achieve the extra 10
percent? The fundamentals won’t change. Excellence, grit, and
empathy are timeless attributes of successful people in every field. But
as the pace and variability of work increase, success will be at the
margins, separating successful people from the herd.