This article represents an attempt to allay the myth that the gifted will be successful anyway and, if they are not, they are not really gifted On the contrary from an early age the gifted suffer problems m peer interaction They are bored at school, at Umverslty, at work, and in personal relationships Although their work may be excellent they can impair their promotion prospects and even run the risk of dismissal because they do not 'fit m' Career changes are relatwely frequent for this minority A sample of creatwely gifted students has been questioned and followed up since 1973 While it is readily admitted that the sample is small it is strongly suggested that the results make clear that this problem merits investigation The responses of the creatively gifted students were compared to the responses of a larger sample of students not identifiable as creatively gifted Of the creatively gifted sample --only one has gone on for a Ph D --the entire group found school and umverslty an ahenatmg experience --the majonty of the females m this group felt that for a girl to he 'too smart' ~mpmred socml acceptability --66% have contemplated smc~de and devised a means The dangers of percewlng creativity as a umd~menslonal construct are d~scussed