Was it George Carlin who said, "Kids are like any other group of people... very few winners at the top... whole lotta losers at the bottom."

In accordance to Rule #1 Dennis Leary said "Life sucks, get a f-king helmet!" Put that up in glow-in-the-dark letters over the bed of your "minimally exceptional" kid who is enjoying the fruits of his "deferred success" because he "just hasn't succeeded yet"... Might help give him a little perspective on the Real World...

Check your dictionary Especially #1, 2 and 3...

fail
v. failed, fail·ing, fails
v. intr.

   1. To prove deficient or lacking; perform ineffectively or inadequately: failed to fulfill their promises; failed in their attempt to reach the summit.
   2. To be unsuccessful: an experiment that failed.
   3. To receive an academic grade below the acceptable minimum.
   4. To prove insufficient in quantity or duration; give out: The water supply failed during the drought.
   5. To decline, as in strength or effectiveness: The patient's heart began to fail.
   6. To cease functioning properly: The engine failed.
   7. To give way or be made otherwise useless as a result of excessive strain: The rusted girders failed and caused the bridge to collapse.
   8. To become bankrupt or insolvent: Their business failed during the last recession.

Provided your success wasn't deferred when you learned to read

"do not necessarily achieve success first time"
Succeed... that's the word this blatherskite is looking for... you don't 'achieve success'... you succeed... Or you fail... Just cause you change the language, doesn't mean you change the thing... 'Post Traumatic Stress Disorder' still walks. swims and quacks like 'Shell Shock'... And when they called it Shell Shock, a lot of the guys who needed it got good help dealing with it...

These are the same kind of self-important, over-educated, under-intelligent people that want to call a hurricane a "vertical, circular wind disturbance", cause they THINK it makes them sound like they know what they're talking about.