This is from the Maclean's article mentioned earlier:

Rena Subotnik noticed that brilliant kids often fall short of expectations. She "checked up on 210 graduates of Hunter College Elementary School, a Manhattan school for intellectually gifted children. These kids had a mean IQ of 157-higher than over 99 percent of people. They came from economically advantaged families. If raw intelligence predicts career success, they would surely have it. But when Subotnik checked how the kids turned out, she found that in middle age they had become happy, prosperous, community-minded citizens, but they hadn't aspired to achieve great things."

As people of average intelligence we might be inclined to look up from the wasteland of American culture, and see glory in the wrong places, wealth and fame as the measure of our success.

Perhaps very smart people would have motivation other than wealth and national attention. What if our expectations for ourselves and our children were to become as Subotnik described, "happy, prosperous, community-minded citizens?" Would that not be enough?