Underachiever vs. Lack of Potential
For some reason this morning I was thinking about success, or lack of it in the case of most people. I am only talking in terms of doing things on a day to day basis and getting paid for it. Before everyone starts ranting about "success" being a subjective term, my definition for this purpose is: individuals who are doing the things that they are obviously destined to do (i.e. they have a talent for it, and they LOVE what they do).
Anyway, I was thinking about how most of the people I know that have gone to uni, (or even those that have finished school) are unhappy where they are in life. Most of them aren't really challenging themselves and to quote any school report card "Has great potential but is underachieving". On the other hand it seems that individuals that have left school and had to fight to get where they are try so much harder. Being the underdog seems to make you aim higher and take greater risks.
So if you have greater potential academically, and do not use it all...is that worse than someone who has less potential but has max'd it out? Is it possible that higher education makes people complacent and more likely to underachieve?
Anyway, I was thinking about how most of the people I know that have gone to uni, (or even those that have finished school) are unhappy where they are in life. Most of them aren't really challenging themselves and to quote any school report card "Has great potential but is underachieving". On the other hand it seems that individuals that have left school and had to fight to get where they are try so much harder. Being the underdog seems to make you aim higher and take greater risks.
So if you have greater potential academically, and do not use it all...is that worse than someone who has less potential but has max'd it out? Is it possible that higher education makes people complacent and more likely to underachieve?
posted by K @ 10:43 pm
2 Comments:
At 10:32 am,
Unknown said…
Hey K! Wow... what a surprise (I had to look twice when something came in through your blog feed!).
Is this something you were just thinking about yesterday morning.. or for a while now? :)
It's very cliche-ish, but I think why people underachieve is that (1) they never really find out what it is they love to do or (2) they find it, but are unable to overcome their current inhibitors in order to take that path.
I reckon each of those two can be extremely difficult to overcome...
At 12:13 pm,
K said…
Yeah it's been awhile...I thought I'd try and get back into it!
This is something that just came to mind yesterday morning on my way to work.
I was thinking most of the people that are famous (and by no means what I would say was the entire definition of successful) - have not had any tertiary education!
I don't think a lot of it has to do with what they love to do - I mean if you are a dentist and love your job...does that mean you will strive to do anything other than be a dentist??
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