Another person that is a counter-example and outlier: Franklin Story Musgrave.
A modern-day polymath, he was a NASA astronaut, Disney Imagineer, and physician among other things. He holds six academic degrees.
He, too, had an extremely troubled upbringing.[1]
In his own words, "I came from an extraordinarily dysfunctional family, full of abuse and alcoholism. And eventually everyone within the family had committed suicide."
A modern-day polymath, he was a NASA astronaut, Disney Imagineer, and physician among other things. He holds six academic degrees.
He, too, had an extremely troubled upbringing.[1]
In his own words, "I came from an extraordinarily dysfunctional family, full of abuse and alcoholism. And eventually everyone within the family had committed suicide."
[1] http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/mus0int-1]