It’s no longer enough for kids to work their asses off in high school so they can win the increasingly cutthroat race for the best colleges. Now there’s something else to consider: the “Most Likely To Succeed” Curse.
Sue Shellenberger of the Wall Street Journal describes this scourge: “Some former winners of the title say what seemed like a nice vote of confidence from their classmates actually created a sense of pressure or self-doubt.” Sometimes the Curse takes Coleridgeian proportions — says Blake Atwood, “Being noosed with ‘most likely to succeed’ is like lugging an albatross to every job interview, new relationship or writing endeavor.” For some it’s a marker of high expectations — Brandon Hogan says, “I wanted in some way to be a leader for the people who were paying attention to me back home.” And sometimes, it takes a stranger form: Sakita Holley had “success” tattooed on her back, changed her middle name to “success” on Facebook, and founded a PR company called “House of Success.”