75 Percent of Super-High Achievers Come From Troubled Families. Here’s Why

Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz grew up in a tough housing project. Oprah Winfrey faced horrifying abuse as a girl. Eleanor Roosevelt’s father drank himself to death. Madonna’s mother died of cancer when she was five.

These aren’t isolated incidents. According to a fascinating Wall Street Journal article by clinical psychologist Meg Jay, childhood trauma and exceptional achievement go together a lot more often than you might suspect.

In fact, Jay details one classic study of 400 super high achievers, those who had at least two biographies written about them due to their positive contributions. When the researchers examined the lives of these success stories, they found that a remarkable 75 percent of them had faced severe difficulties, such as the loss of a parent, dire poverty, or abuse in childhood.

The science of childhood adversity

This isn’t to say, of course, that a terrible childhood isn’t a horror. Most kids who experience this suffering don’t grow up to be CEOs or TV stars, but instead live lives stunted by their early experiences. Trauma is not something you’d ever wish on anyone. But Jay’s point is that in a minority of cases, these early struggles teach extreme resilience that leads to incredible…