How many Albert Einstein like geniuses never reached their potential?

I wonder how many of these people never reach what seems like what they are destined for. Because of some sort of unfortunate circumstance in their life.

I'm sure there is many reasons why. Maybe they passed away prematurely. Maybe they didn't have the opportunities to fully spread their wings.

And I also think about people who are genetically physically gifted and they just didn't have opportunities to become that remarkable athlete. Maybe they were pushed into something they never really wanted to pursue. Or maybe some psychological reason.

I can speak the last point firsthand. I was gifted physically, I excelled in sports like football and boxing to name a few. But as soon as their was high expectations or more attention that was put on to me. I would than quit the sport altogether.

I purposely sabotaged my potential to be great in that particular sport. I'm not completely certain why. I know one thing, I didn't revel in being the center of attention. I hated it. I also have from time to time really bad social anxiety. Which also affected my schooling as well.

So I wonder how many people out there really never reached what they potentially could of achieved. I'm pretty sure their is many, it's just that no one ever got to discover them.

And those that do reach their potential or close to it in what they are gifted at are unfortunately few and far between.

Who know's maybe there was a person out there who could of discovered a cure for certain diseases or just discovered any kind of world changing thing, but he ended up dying in world war II or some other unfortunate incident.