The valedictorian at my high school seemed like this impossible standard to live up to with his frightening intelligence. He went to a nice college and got his PhD thereafter. He was attractive, athletic, and ambitious. He's a friend of mine. I saw him struggle to find employment after his post doc recently.

Like consider how his unbroken streak of scholastic excellence in post-secondary education didn't translate to worldly success. Meanwhile my ass getting mid grades, doing drugs (often with the valedictorian after high school), and being interested (not even fascinated, I just thought it was neat) with being a CIA agent managed to convert that into a job at Langley. I took a 2 year detour because I thought I wanted to be an ESL teacher! He ended up finding a job and it pays modestly better than mine with less upside potential because I have a sales component (I get a commission for convincing my handlers that a leftist's posts are good enough to inject them with nanobots and cringe takes).

So ultimately, my point is that even if you were to have aced every single test and piece of homework in highschool the value of your scholastic success pales in comparison to making decisions like an adult. You'll make more money, you'll have better relationships, you'll feel more at peace. I value three things in terms of career success ~~: 1) are you qualified/can I afford it? It can't JUST be a confidence game. 2) find a problem, solve a problem. Use whatever resources you have at your disposal, but solve something for someone. 3) imagination/ambition. How could this be more awesome?~~ and grades in high school aren't on the list