Yale Law Professors' Triple Package: The Key To Success For Minorities In The Legal Profession?

Thoughts from columnist Renwei Chung on Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld's controversial, bestselling book.

“The rejected stone is now the cornerstone / Sort of like the master builder when I make my way home.”

— Guru, Gang Starr

Recently, I had the opportunity to review The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America, the bestselling book by the wife-and-husband team of Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld, both professors at Yale Law School. You may be familiar with Chua, who first gained fame as a “Tiger Mom” because of her book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. The basic premise for The Triple Package is that certain groups have had disproportionate success in our country and the “Triple Package” is the reason for this success. Chua and Rubenfeld believe the three dominant predictive traits for achievement in America are:

  1. A superiority complex.
  2. Insecurity.
  3. Impulse control.

The book’s premise is, no doubt, controversial. This is partly because the book attempts to answer “a complicated socioeconomic and cultural question.” Regardless of how you feel about the book, if read in context it can promote much needed discussions regarding racial issues in our society. In addition, minorities in the law can use particular parts of this thesis to better understand how they can become successful in their own careers. If nothing else, The Triple Package can be a guide for what character pathologies minorities should guard against while pursuing their own versions of success.

Anytime you talk about achievement in socioeconomic and cultural terms, it is sure to be provocative. But this doesn’t mean that particular influences, traits, and systematic factors aren’t critical to one’s success. Chua and Rubenfeld write it is important for cultural groups to have a superiority complex because:

For most of its history, America did pretty much everything a country could do to create a narrative of superiority—moral and intellectual, political and economic—for its white population and the opposite for everyone else. White supremacy was an equal-opportunity discriminator, targeting all nonwhites from the Native American tribes to Chinese “coolies” to Mexican laborers. For centuries, however , the central corollary of white superiority was black inferiority.

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Chua and Rubenfeld warn that “[s]uperiority complexes can be invidious, but in a society rife with prejudice they can also provide what sociologists have described as ‘an ethnic armor’ enabling some minorities ‘to cope psychologically, even in the face of discrimination and exclusion….’ Especially among minorities, this strategy tends to function much more as a defensive shield of self-protection than as a weapon of contempt against others.”

A superiority complex is defined asa psychological defense mechanism in which a person’s feelings of superiority counter or conceal his or her feelings of inferiority.” Therefore, it makes sense that Chua and Rubenfeld describe it as a “defensive shield.” It is no secret, minorities face discrimination and exclusion every day. As Plato states, “necessity is the mother of invention.”

Besides overt prejudice, each minority fights her own unique battle with society throughout her education and career. Chua and Rubenfeld provide examples of how Mormons and Jews have leveraged their deeply internalized beliefs in their exceptionalism to succeed in our society. Chua and Rubenfeld point out group superiority is the stuff of racism, colonialism, imperialism, Nazism. Yet every one of America’s extremely successful groups fosters a belief in its own superiority.”

In Cal Newport’s book So Good They Can’t Ignore You, he writes that it is only after meticulously working on our craft and honing our skills that we can truly discover (cultivate) our passion. Therefore, on the competitive battlefield we should use our superiority complex as a defensive shield” and our work ethic as our weapon. In other words, a superiority complex should be a mechanism to combat prejudice, not promote it, while our work ethic can help display and prove our worth to society.

Near the end of the science-fiction movie Gattaca, the main character Vincent (played by Ethan Hawke) says, “Just remember that I was as good as any, and better than most.” This line is meant to convey that he believed he was genetically as good as any, but his work ethic helped him achieve more than most. At the very least, I hope we as minorities can find solace in our work ethic.

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Chua and Rubenfeld define insecurity, the second factor of the Triple Package, as a species of discontent — an anxious uncertainty about your worth or place in society, a feeling or worry that you or what you’ve done or what you have is in some fundamental way not good enough.” They write, there’s a deep tension between insecurity and a superiority complex. It’s odd to think of people being simultaneously insecure but also convinced of their divine election or superiority. Yet this tense, unstable combination… is precisely what gives the Triple Package its potency.”

Insecurities are hard to admit. We all suffer from some form of insecurity or inadequacy. It is how we internalize and act on these feelings that differentiates us from one another. Chua and Rubenfeld believe scorn, fear, and family” are three of the most powerful sources of insecurities. Ethnic anxiety, rational and irrational fears of survival, and family honor can all pervade a minority’s thinking, but these insecurities can also instill in her an immense drive to succeed. In other words, if used properly our insecurity can become our biggest motivator.

Impulse control is the third predictive component of the Triple Package. Chua and Rubenfeld write, How people respond to failure is a critical dividing line between those who make it and those who don’t. Success requires more than motivation, more even than a deep urge to rise. Willpower and perseverance in the face of adversity are equally important.” They believe impulse control equates to the capacity to resist temptations. They cite longitudinal studies that reveal greater impulse control in early childhood translates into much better outcomes across a wide variety of domains.”

Culture can cultivate willpower, perseverance, and impulse control. As a first-generation American, I wanted nothing more than to assimilate into American culture — partly to keep from being harassed, but also because America’s instant-gratification, entitlement-oriented culture is much easier for an adolescent than my own Taiwanese culture. As Chua and Rubenfeld write, America’s successful groups tell their members something different: You are capable of great things because of the group to which you belong; but you, individually, are not good enough; so you need to control yourself, resist temptation, and prove yourself.” By consciously focusing on willpower, perseverance, and impulse control, minorities can leverage these hallmarks into competitive advantages.

Chua and Rubenfeld remind us that everybody has some type of chip on their shoulder, something to prove. It is what we do with these feelings that helps determine our destiny. Perhaps the most intriguing part of The Triple Package is the psychological damage and harmful consequences a person, as well as society, can suffer if any part of it is out of balance. After all, The Triple Package is about the rise and fall of cultural groups in America.

The most successful attorneys I know are all perseverant, driven, and passionate. If they were asked, how did you develop these traits?” I’d wager their responses would all filter down to three common denominators: a superiority complex, insecurity, and impulse control.”

The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America [Amazon (affiliate link)]
So Good They Can’t Ignore You [Amazon (affiliate link)]


Renwei Chung is a 2L at Southern Methodist University School of Law. He has an undergraduate degree from Michigan State University and an MBA from the University of Chicago. He is the author of The Golden Rule: How Income Inequality Will Ruin America (affiliate link). He has been randomly blogging about anything and everything at Live Your Truth since 2008. He was born in California, raised in Michigan, and lives in Texas. He has a yellow lab named Izza and enjoys old-school hip hop, the NBA and stand up paddleboarding (SUP). He is really interested in startups, entrepreneurship, and innovative technologies. You can contact Renwei by email at projectrenwei@gmail.com, follow him on Twitter (@renweichung), or connect with him on LinkedIn.