Being the oldest sibling is hard work. Like, really hard work. You’ve got to do everything first, get in trouble for it and then watch a couple years down the line as your little brother or sister goes ahead and makes exactly the same mistakes without so much as a ‘go to your room’ from your parents.
It sucks. With age comes a lot of unwanted responsibility, and while us older sibs are doing our best to pave the way for our younger, more-likely-to-get-away-with-it counterparts, it looks like the carefree, unconventional attitude that pissed you off throughout your teenage years will actually serve them pretty well. Fantastic.
The last-born siblings in families that don’t have a history of entrepreneurship are more likely to go on and become risk-taking business people, reports The Sunday Times.
Academics from Reading and Birmingham universities studied the lives of more than 6,300 British men and women who were born in 1970 and raised with siblings. They found out that in families where there wasn’t a history of entrepreneurial spirit, the younger of two siblings was 49% more likely to go their own way, pave their own path and become their own boss. All by the age of 38.
It says in the study: ‘The “born to rebel” thesis [suggests] last-borns being more likely to be exploratory, unconventional and tolerant of risk’.
When they looked at families with three siblings however, the youngest was 43% more likely than the eldest to venture into the world entrepreneurship.
On the flip side though, it’s not all bad news for older siblings with dreams of running their own businesses. The study also found that in families where self-employment was familiar territory, it was the first and middle born kids who were more likely to become entrepreneurs too.
So it pretty much looks like older siblings are most likely to obey the rules and follow in the footsteps of mum and dad, while the baby of the family will do whatever they want, break the rules and build success out of it. Typical. Cue the telephone call to mum to moan about why it’s just not faaaair.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.