Well, I was just kidding about the most likely to escape from prison comment, and I was going for a cheap laugh!
However, I perpetrated more than my fair share of mischief, especially in Jr. High.
I'll try to answer your question, but I don't think any of these situations are straight forward or easily boxed in for any kids, let alone the gifted ones.
I think work ethic AND personality have a lot to do with anyone's success, but I'm not sure my work ethic is significantly more solid than anyone else's in my family.
It would probably be fair to say that I am the most strong willed. Maybe that's the key, who knows. I have a great work ethic when I decide I want to do something, KWIM?
That said, I think imposter syndrome, perfectionism and fear of failure are big concerns with gifted kids growing up, especially girls. But I also think the people posting on this board are extrememly attuned to what's going on with their kids, so any issues that may come up can be resolved.
Also, I'm not sure school came easier to my sibs,per se, but I'm pretty sure being able to tolerate boredom and frustration came more easily to them and that might have been the key. Again, that has more to do with personality. I will say if any child is easily bored, has low frustration tolerance, has ability to outsmart the teacher and knows it; well, that could be problematic in any school setting.
So, let's see if I can sum this up. If I had to attribute my lack of k-12 school success in relation to my intellectual ability to one thing it would be: Low frustration tolerance. However, if this had been recognized when I was young, I'm sure it could have become a non-issue with the right amount of help.
Success in college would probably be attributed to finally having something interesting to do.
Success in career as an adult: who knows? Maybe a combination or working smart and hard? A good friend of mine in business once told me that success was the ability to withstand repeated failure without losing your enthusiasm to be successful. I would agree with this. Actually, while I dropped out of the workforce to have kids, he kept on and is currently extremely, enormously successful. Did I answer your question? Or just rambling?
Incog
