If you had this trait as a child, you are more likely to be a top earner

Not everyone has been blessed with an idyllic childhood, but the beautiful thing about being an adult is that you get to evolve and do your best to become the kind of person you want to be regardless of your upbringing.

That being said, there are early-life traits that can predict tendencies in adulthood — including your likelihood of earning a lot of money. And it turns out that if you were stubborn as a kid, you’re more likely to be a top earner. So that’s one personality trait that you might want to hold onto.

According to a study published in Developmental Psychology, rule-breaking and general defiance are two of the best predicting factors of having a high income as an adult. So if you drove your caregivers crazy by refusing to follow their lead, it could indeed mean you’re bringing home a bigger paycheck than the majority of people.

Scientists assessed 12-year-old students and tracked them down 40 years later to come to this conclusion and figure out which personality traits had an influence on life outcomes such as occupational success and income.

Yes, things like being a responsible student who is organized about tasks and has a strong work ethic did have an impact on educational achievement and career success. But the stubbornness-related finding was a bit of a surprise, and the researchers behind the study did offer a few theories to explain why hard-headed kids make bank later in life.

Recognize yourself as that child and teen who broke all the rules? Here’s why that might have ended up turning out in your favor.

Better negotiation skills

“We might assume that students who scored high on this scale might earn a higher income because they are more willing to be more demanding during critical junctures such as when negotiating salaries or raises,” wrote the scientists when explaining the relationship between rule-breaking, defiance and income.

So if you were a stubborn child, chances are, you grew up to become a more powerful negotiator, which has a direct impact on your earning potential. And it’s never too late to leverage those negotiation skills even further now that you know it’s your superpower.

Less people-pleasing

Rebellious kids grow up to become less agreeable, meaning that they’re not just going to be blindly influenced or agree to things to be polite. And low agreeableness correlated with higher income in adulthood in the study.

“One explanation Judge and colleagues (2012) gave for this finding was that it might be because of the fact that such individuals value competition more than interpersonal relations and therefore want to advance their interests relative to others.”

“Another explanation might be that individuals with higher levels of rule-breaking and defiance of parental authority also have higher levels of willingness to stand up for their own interests and aims, a characteristic that leads to more favorable individual outcomes (Barry & Friedman, 1998)—in our case, income.”

Stubborn children tend to become adults who stand up for themselves and are more likely to engage in salary negotiations and ask about career advancement opportunities.

Unethical behavior

While there are positive consequences to having been a tougher-to-deal-with child, it’s also important to be aware of the potential downfalls that come with that. People who are likely or willing to break rules sometimes earn their way to the top in unethical ways, suggested the researchers.

“We also cannot rule out that individuals who are likely or willing to break rules get higher pay for unethical reasons.”

“For instance, research in the field of organizational psychology showed that employees invest in unethical or deviant workplace behavior when they are not satisfied with their income and when they have a high level of love of money (Tang & Chiu, 2003). Thus, this kind of behavior might, in turn, lead to higher income.”

There is nothing wrong with letting your proud inner rebel call the shots when it comes to being a leader, standing up for the value you bring to the table and believing in yourself. But it’s worth considering whether some of your choices veer into slightly unethical territory, as making ethical choices is not always black and white and requires introspection and reflection.