Writer Mildred Goertzel and her psychologist husband Victor Goertzel, in 1962, published the results of their study of the formative years of 400 of the most prominent people at the time. They chose their subjects by identifying them by the number of citations in the major newspapers and magazines at the time - a concept predating the internet search engine.
They did biographical research and applied the social science research standards of the day to identifying categories of characteristics many shared with each other.
In the Goertzel's own language, here are a few of their summaries of the data.
"Three-fourths of the children are troubled - by poverty; by a broken home; by rejecting, overpossessive, estranged, or dominating parents; by financial ups and downs; by physical handicaps; or by parental dissatisfaction over the children's school failures or vocational choices."
"Handicaps such as blindness; deafness; being crippled, sickly, homely, undersized, or overweight; or having a speech defect, occur in the childhoods of over one-fourth of the sample. In many of these individuals, the need to compensate for such handicaps is seen by them as a determining factor in their drive for achievement."
"Among explorers and adventurers, there is almost always a history of accident-proneness."
"Three-fifths of the four Hundred expressed dissatisfaction with schools and schoolteachers, although four-fifths showed exceptional talent."
Here are a few anecdotes.
"Danish novelist Siegrid Undset said of school, 'They set out to make me see how unpleasant life ought to be made for anyone who is different from other people.'"
"Inventor Thomas Edison said of school, 'I was always at the foot of the class. I used to feel my teachers did not sympathize with me and my father thought I was stupid.'"
"Physicist Enrico Fermi was threatened with expulsion for his unrelenting misbehavior including vandalism."
"Pope John XXIII was scolded for always coming to class unprepared."
"Actor Sarah Bernhardt was expelled from school three times."
"Author Gertrude Stein in 1894 negotiated an interview rather than a written exam for a course at Harvard -- Radcliffe."
"Composer Sergei Rachmaninov turned in consistently poor grades at the Conservatory of St. Petersburg. According to his biographer, 'No one doubted the lazy hyperactive boy's talents.'"
"Financier J. P. Morgan said, 'I can do twelve months worth of work in nine months, but I can't do it in twelve.'"
Georgia legislator and social justice activist Julian Bond was sent to George School, private and Quaker-run, near Philadelphia. There he first encountered racial resentment when he began dating a white girl, incurring the disapproval of white students and the school authorities.
"In almost all the homes there is a love for learning in one or both parents, often accompanied by a physical exuberance and a persistent drive toward goals. Fewer than ten percent of the parents failed to show a strong love for learning."
REFERENCED IN THIS LETTER:
Mildred Goertzel: https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/20000128/4001795/social-activist-mildred-goertzel-studied-lives-of-famous-people
Victor Goertzel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Goertzel
published: https://crab.rutgers.edu/users/goertzel/cradles.htm
Siegrid Undset: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigrid_Undset
Thomas Edison: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Edison
Enrico Fermi: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enrico_Fermi
Pope John XXIII: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_John_XXIII
Sarah Bernhardt: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/paris-exhibition-celebrates-sarah-bernhardt-the-first-modern-celebrity-180982174/
Gertrude Stein: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_Stein
Sergei Rachmaninov: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Rachmaninoff
J. P. Morgan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._P._Morgan
Julian Bond: https://www.aag.org/memorial/julian-bond/