I'm been working as a ghostwriter for some years, and over this period I've written several books with entrepreneurs and businessmen. Several of these clients were extremely wealthy. Not in the Elon Musk league, but easily rich enough to invest their money, have a very comfortable income, own at least one property, and never work again. Of course, none of them were doing this!
Over time, I've become more and more fascinated by the factors that drive people who are wealthy to attempt to accumulate more, and to endure experiences that aren't in any way enjoyable, when they are free to do literally anything. There are many characteristics that, in my view, underpin this, including narcissism and the love of attention, insecurity, obsession with status, attempting to compensate for some perceived weakness or inadequacy, upbringing and social example, and just simple lust for money and power. I also believe that making money simply becomes a form of compulsive addiction, and if heightened attention and / or being placed on some form of pedestal is added to the mix, then it can become highly potent.
But through interviewing successful entrepreneurs, I realised something critical about businesspeople generally. If you want to be successful in business, it's a disadvantage to be intelligent. Probably most people have realised that there is no correlation, let alone causality, between intelligence and business success. But I would argue that intelligence is actively disadvantageous.
None of the people that I've worked with in this area have been particularly bright, even by their own admission. And it became clear to me that this is important for three reasons, with the third reason being critical.
By virtue of not being intelligent:
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They don't question whether or not what they're doing is worthwhile;
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They are less likely to feel empathy for people that they exploit / trample on (this is more debatable, but there is some evidence that intelligence correlates with empathy);
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Critically, crucially, they don't get bored. They can talk about business for hours and hours and hours, and they never get bored. Trust me, they never get bored!
It was only through having meetings with several such people that I realised this. If I'm not doing something creative or actively enjoyable, I get bored extremely quickly. The Internet has probably contributed to this, but I think this tendency is inherent within me. I remember that when I had a conventional job, all I ever used to think about at work was when I could go home! Conversely, their capacity to hold meetings, and talk for hours, about stuff that doesn't even need to be discussed, can only be described as heroic!
That's why it's a major disadvantage to be intelligent if you want to succeed in the capitalist rat race. Because not only will you question whether or not it's worthwhile (clearly, it isn't worthwhile), but what you have to do to succeed will become utterly tedious extremely quickly. Whereas, less intelligent people are able to concentrate on these boring things, these activities that are bereft of any form of creativity or engagement, for inordinate periods of time.
While I am sceptical about some of the claims made about extended working hours, this also partially explains why businesspeople are able to invest such punishing hours in work. While this is physically tiring, the main reason that it's hard to do is that it becomes mentally draining. You or I could never do this because our brains would tell us: “you've been doing the same thing all day. This is boring. It's also pointless. Stop doing it!”. But that never happens to them. This is also why they can't understand why everyone isn't like them.
This further applies to people that work, seemingly gleefully, within the system. My parents, for example, never appeared to become tired of work, or bored. When I had a job, I was literally bored to tears every single day of my working life. I don't think that they have ever experienced this. And I think it comes down to an infamous comment by George Carlin:
“They want obedient workers. Obedient workers. People who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork, and just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it”.
There are two main characteristics that separate the owner-class and the working-class. Firstly, the owner-class are usually born into it. Secondly, they've worked out that it's better to be the owner than the worker (often they didn't work this out; it just became obvious because of their social class). You will find that the vast majority of people who love work at any level, and succeed in the corporate system, are just smart enough to fill in the paperwork, and just dumb enough to never get bored by doing it, or question why they're doing it. That's the perfect person to work in a business, or run a business.
I can assert confidently that 99% of people who post here, quite possibly 100%, encounter exactly the same problem that I did. You find work boring after a period of time, you question its value, you inevitably wonder what the point is in working all the time, particularly as the work you've been assigned is tedious. Those that run the system, and the corporate and finance sector in particular, never encounter this problem.
And while there are numerous factors that contribute to this, and there are exceptions to the rule, typically these people simply do not get bored because they're not very bright.