Universe - We are missing something

If you are facing a mirror and with another mirror behind you, it's natural for you to see 1000s of replicas. Though let's imagine that you don't know the principle of physics of mirror imaging and don't know there is a mirror behind you. You will keep looking for answers of how deep is the image in the mirror is.
When I hear/ read about Universe, and it's vastness, sometimes, I feel, are we missing something in rules, that can make this all less complex.....

Bright - Confused - Stagnant

We all come across so many bright, really bright, people, who have done great as kids/teenagers and struggling in adult life. These are people from best of the Universities, and you talk to them, and they are bright, they think beyond, they can hold a conversation on complex topics. Many of these "bright people" are struggling in career vis a vis many other "not so bright" candidates.
What's going on here, why brightest minds are not at the top. The simple answer is "What they do not teach you at School?" or in simple terms, it is not all about only intelligence. So what are the parameters that stop intelligent people from growing to the top?
In my thinking, following are some critical parameters. Following is no final list, though just a list that I thought of, I may update it later.......
i) What is one's driving factor?
We have heard many times, the best recipe for success is to do what's your passion is, so you go to work every day to something that drives you. Though topping a college or university is not always about passion or internally driven. Many times driving factor comes from external stimuli, like just about meeting expectations of society or parents or fear of something external. Same people in real adult life, have difficulty in finding that drive from inner self when things are going well. There is no fear or meeting any body's expectations or failure. So in such a mindset, one is always in a catch-up game. In adult life, a person will for some time work hard and reach a point of equality or a small advantage to peers, a place, where one does not feel fear and pressure of societal expectations. With fear gone, this is obviously followed by a float period. During the float period rest of the world moves ahead and then fear comes back again. This person never achieves the full potential of self and always in catch up game, since stimuli are external. The answer lies in thinking through what is one's self-driving factor in life. It has to be something from the inner that one buys into and one wants to achieve. It should not be something based on external stimuli.
ii) Intelligent people at times do not know, how to learn from successful people?
An intelligent person in college is a person, whom everybody comes to help for most. So effectively everybody is learning from him or her, rather him or her learning from others. Above may not be true for all the people. Though there is a fair percentage of academically brilliant people, who do self-learning. Being self-taught is ok when in college, where learning mostly is one dimensional. Though in real life, success needs competence in multiple dimensions. At this point, one's ability to learn and listen to others become very important. At this point ability to collaborate, or learn from other successful people becomes the difference between success and float.
Due to Lack of ability to learn from others, intelligent people either get frustrated or confused or both. Some try to do what they know the best work harder and produce more, though that is like cleaning the handle of knife again and again, while what one needs is sharpening the edge of the knife. Failure despite hard work leads to more frustration. It is a deadly trap, since these people, many a time become the demotivation catalysts in the organization. These are the people, though bright, are the ones who are complaining about anything and everything on the coffee machines. These are tough people to identify since given intelligence they have; they are still average or above average performers in current roles. It is the growth that they lack and desire that company cannot give.
iii) Lack of Discipline
The third factor in my understanding is the lack of discipline. An intelligent person and gets things easy in early life. The first casualty for easy wins is discipline. While in real life, my take, discipline is more important than intelligence. I am not demeaning intelligence, just prioritizing. Simple situations of self-owned business or a corporate job, when one needs to fill in 12 hrs or work in an eight hour day, the only way to accomplish that is through discipline or burn out happens fast. There are mundane tasks that need to be completed, and those need discipline. The lack of discipline hinders growth.
So a shout out to, all intelligent people out there, look at yourself carefully. Please don't become the critiques of the world at the coffee machine. You are more than that; organizations need you, the world needs you.
Simple abilities to relook at what your persona is, what you driving factor is, may lead to success you are missing for so long.