I am not going to mention the actual IQ number

but there were signs before any testing was done. When I was about 2-3yrs old my grandfather would invite all his friends to hear me read his newspapers out loud. Soon after that I was reciting poems he taught me, in my weekly performances. That proved to be helpful as few years later I was competing in national poetry reciting competitions which for most of elementary school I ended up winning. Around same age I also started drawing animals, people, and some abstract ideas, couple examples:

Other memories I have from that early age was sitting on an orange pouf chair playing chess with my Dad in the evenings.

By second grade of elementary school I was sent to the National Institute of Education for the Gifted for psychological testing, as despite having straight As I was thought to be disruptive and too talkative in class. After many tests the Institute concluded that unless I am moved from 2ndd to 7th grade because of high IQ I will be bored in classes and will continue being disruptive. My parents did not agree to that, they thought it will affect my social skills as I will be a little kid in classes with 13-14 year olds.

I stayed in regular grades and during that time I won five national subject olympics in Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics, Literature and History. I remember since I was also the youngest one to win, during the diploma award ceremony for History Olympiad I receieved a giant white bear, much bigger than me and my teacher had trouble fitting it into her car on our way back.

I have always been interested in everything, fascinated at all times. Without my parents knowledge I went and got tested in a music school, passed the exam and signed up. My mom got call from school that she now has to purchase piano as I was enrolled. I placed several times 2nd and 3rd in state Piano competitions, completed 8 years of music school.

I moved alone to Los Angeles to enter high school at the age of 14 because I wanted to learn English. I got accepted without examination to a high school for the gifted but wanted to learn English first.

Taught myself English in the first 6 months while walking everywhere with dictionary. My best friends were my teachers. English teacher whom I would see at 6am before school everyday would bring for me 1 then 2 then 3 and sometimes even 5 books to read for the week, which we would then analyze and discuss. My Biology teacher who liked me a lot asked me to live with her family, which I did. My Chemistry teacher would take me with his wife to Sierra mountains for hiking on weekends (beautiful, generous, kind people made me feel welcome, I thank them all, who offered their time and their hearts, my wonderful teachers).

Then my Chemistry and Physics teachers after first academic year reached out to Caltech and Stanford recommending early admission since as a Freshman I completed all available 11 and 12 grade honors classes and for tests they were giving me problems from college textbooks. I solved regular material too fast and was not challenged. At school I played soccer, played flute and was part of many clubs.

I graduated high school in 2 years as first in class of 736. I also won California Academic Decathlon and received Gold medal as Head lawyer of the team in the California Mock Trial Competition.

I entered University at the age of 16. Simultaneously I worked as researcher in the Departments of Immunobiology, Vascular Surgery and Pediatrics at the University of Chicago Hospitals. My research focused on cell apoptosis, creating a novel stent prototype for stroke prevention and cancer.

In schoolwork I generally set curves for grading in all the science classes, and was top student in the grad courses I took, with my professor asking the grad students to read my papers. Professors asked me to work on research with them. I graduated with four honors degrees, which my advisor told me is impossible to do and was never done in school history.

In summary, my teachers and professors were my best friends, and I got to discuss with them all that was interesting to me, which for most of my young life was almost everything as my need for mental stimulation has been extensive. I think that teachers thought that I had ravishing appetite for knowledge and got great pleasure from figuring out how things work. An appetite which kept growing since with learning more I was also increasingly aware of just how little I knew.

However librarians were not of the same opinion. I was the one closing daily the science library, and one day a formal letter was sent to me by the head of Crerar as having stayed over many times past the 1am closing time I was instructed to stop that indulgent habit reserved for graduate students. In reality the Japanese man who was swiping us at the entrance gate got finally tired of playing seek-and-hide between the stacks at 3am.

That was my specific path but I would like to add - the IQ number you are referring to, is not important at all, at best it generalizes the potential. My parents did not disclose it to me when I was growing up and additionally did not want me to move grades not to affect my social growth and not to give child a delusional sense it was in anyway special.

Most people without ever knowing their “iq number” make invaluable contributions out of the simple joy of creation. “Intelligence is as intelligence does” Forrest Gump

“Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.” Gospel of Matthew

Go where your passion takes you, follow your joy. “Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas.” Marie Skladowska- Curie. Don’t worry what anybody else is doing with or without fictional numbers.

Only once you reach beyond competition and ego you tap into creativity. Ego consumes vast amounts of energy. As you reach the place where you are able to deactivate ego, at last you grasp the extent of your full potential.