How much of brilliance/perseverance can be nurtured/injected by parents early on?
SCVNGR's Seth Priebatsch[1]
"It's an idea that a 5-year-old Seth also learned on a ski trip.
Seth's dad took him to the top of a black diamond run and skied down about 100 feet to wait for his unprepared son. Seth threw a fit, cursing up as much of a storm as a 5-year-old could muster. But then it clicked.
"He wasn't going to come get me," he said, "so at a certain
point, you just start moving."
Also, Bill Gates [2]
"The future software mogul was a headstrong 12-year-old and was having a particularly nasty argument with his mother at the dinner table. Fed up, his father threw a glass of cold water in the boy's face.
"Thanks for the shower," the young Mr. Gates snapped."
"Still, they worried that [Bill] seemed to prefer books to people. They tried to temper that streak by forcing him to be a greeter at their parties and a waiter at his father's professional functions."
I'm pretty sure those traits can be influenced by parents - but the real question is what the long term success rate is. I've met people who did really well because their parents provided that kind of focus, but I've also met people who were completely screwed up by it.
Our own approach has been to make sure our son has had a lot of opportunities to learn stuff (e.g. he has been skiing since his 3rd birthday) but we do try and ensure that these things are first and foremost about being fun rather than an ordeal.
SCVNGR's Seth Priebatsch[1]
"It's an idea that a 5-year-old Seth also learned on a ski trip.
Seth's dad took him to the top of a black diamond run and skied down about 100 feet to wait for his unprepared son. Seth threw a fit, cursing up as much of a storm as a 5-year-old could muster. But then it clicked.
"He wasn't going to come get me," he said, "so at a certain point, you just start moving."
Also, Bill Gates [2]
"The future software mogul was a headstrong 12-year-old and was having a particularly nasty argument with his mother at the dinner table. Fed up, his father threw a glass of cold water in the boy's face.
"Thanks for the shower," the young Mr. Gates snapped."
"Still, they worried that [Bill] seemed to prefer books to people. They tried to temper that streak by forcing him to be a greeter at their parties and a waiter at his father's professional functions."
[1] http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/11/02/seth.priebatsc...
[2] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124061372413054653.html