5 It's Never Too Late for Success (Excerpt)
You and your parents can stop worrying—Edison, Darwin and lots of more were far from being geniuses in their teens.
History books seldom mention it, but the truth is that many of our greatest figures were practically “beatniks” when they were teenagers. They were given to daydreaming, indecision,hebetude
(plain dullness), and they showed no promise of being a doctor, lawyer or Indian chief.
So,young men and women,if you suffer from the same symptoms, don't despair. The world was built by men and women whose parents worried that they would “never amount to a hill of beans”. You don't hear too much about their early failures because parents prefer to cite more inspiring examples.
Charles Darwin's early life was a mess. He hated school, and his father once shouted: “You care for nothing but shooting dogs and rat catching, and you will be a disgrace to yourself and all your family!” He was sent to Glasgow to study medicine, but he couldn't stand the sight of blood. He was sent to divinity school and barely managed to graduate. Whereupon he chucked the whole business and shipped out to the South Seas on the famous exploring ship Beagle. On that voyage, one of history's greatest scientists was born. It was here that he collected the material for the book that would revolutionize biological science—The Origin of the Species.
And added to all the aforementioned paradoxes you have a small army of child prodigies who graduated from college when they were 15, and are now obscure clerks in accounting departments. And you have a small army of men who were too stupid or indolent to get into or finish college and who are today presidents of the firms that hire the prodigies.
So who's to say what about youth? Any young boy or girl who knows what he/ she wants to do in life is probably better off for it. But no teenager needs despair of the future. He has that one special advantage over the greatest man alive—time.