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At the town drunk's funeral, both of his sons were there. One was the president of the local bank and the other was the new town drunk.

A bystander asked the bank president how he turned out that way.

He responded, "With a father like that, how else could I turn out?"

He asked the same question to the drunk who responded, "With a father like that, how else could I turn out?"



Nice that they turned out so "well", but I think the real measure isn't their title and this cute story doesn't convey much information about the men. My father came from a large family, at the head of which was a drunk father. All but him followed in the footsteps of their father.

However, having said this, I've often thought that extraordinary people (and you often find the heads of companies are extraordinary) often came from environments that were extraordinarily harsh. I always thought that if the harshness of the childhood didn't break them, it would make them super strong or driven compared to people that had "normal" childhoods.


The only difference being that your analogy doesn't use a condition that the majority of its readers would self-identify with and thus validate themselves.




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