Is it a Blessing?

" Talent hits a target no one else can hit;
Genius hits a target no one else can see"
- Arthur Schopenhauer

It was reported in the paper that the genius ten-years-old boy, Adi Putra Abdul Ghani, is charging RM6000 per hour for lecturing at certain local universities. On top of that he is also the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for two companies.

He has stopped schooling and studied from home. He's interested in mathematics, physics, chemistry, geography and biology but not history and politics.

He dislikes reading books but prefer to browse the Net for study materials.

Wikipedia defines genius as follows :

Genius may show itself in early childhood as a prodigy or later in life, either way, geniuses eventually differentiate themselves from the others through great originality.

Genius often have crisp, clear-eyed visions of given situations, in which interpretation is unnecessary, and they build or act on the basis of those facts, usually with tremendous energy.

Accomplished geniuses in intellectual fields start out in many cases as child prodigy, gifted with superior memory or understanding.

Howard Gardner, Harvard University Professor, had come up with hypothesis on multiple intelligence. His book 'Frames of Mind' published in 1983 stated the 7 types of intelligences.

Well, Adi is a gifted prodigy and has achieved what adults envy for. His hourly rate might be equivalent to senior lecturer paying scheme for a month.

However, is this what he really wants? What about another 10 or 20 years down the line? Will he be happy enjoying his labour of works or will he end up burn out?

We have come across earlier of a case of Sufiah, a child prodigy, studied Mathematics at Oxford University, got married, divorced and finally became a social escort to support her life.

So, is it a blessing to have or be a gifted kid?

In my opinion, they are super normal kids with high IQ and should be given opportunity to express their expertise and intelligence. However, as kids they need guidance and supervision to nurture their special gifts into proper channels.

They also need to balance up their social lives in order to minimise the gap among their peers. To me, the parents should not take advantage of the situations.