The American Mathematical Society has a PDF of essays of brilliant mathematicians (including Terence Tao) who despite their abilities, faced obstacles and difficulties that their sheer talents were inadequate to overcome, and they had to persevere.
> Absolutely. No matter how gifted a person is, there is going to be some point in their lives or some domain where pure talent will be insufficient.
Unfortunately, for some this comes in university where we see peers with worse grades getting access to better graduate roles and work placements because of who they are related to, and you can't study your way to having the right surname.