just wait and see

There are plenty of smart people in this world who have followed the conventional wisdom of going to school, getting good marks, and getting a good job. There are also plenty of smart people who have not followed this wisdom, who wasted their potential and achieved nothing with their lives.

If you were to sample both these groups and compare how happy each group as a whole were, which group would you think would be happier?

The answer is, they would both be equally happy. There would be some really happy people and some really miserable people in both groups.

Now there might be a really smart guy who is working really hard in a ‘good’ job, but his boss is brutal and causes this guy to be really stressed. There might be another really smart guy, who gave up everything to become a painter but only enjoys moderate success in this area, many people criticize him but he is happy.

So in comparing the two, who has actually wasted their potential?

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Mind you comparing a happy person from both groups is a different matter (But one took less effort)