Of course there is. First, there is your biology. You might simply not be intelligent enough to become a great engineer. If you set the cut-off for greatness at &quot;published a widely influential paper&quot; or &quot;designed a large distributed system from ground up&quot; this becomes even more the case. You might not have the health and the endurance to work on demanding high-end projects long enough to get really good at those kinds of projects.<p>Then, there are the social factors. Your other obligations, like raising children, can get in the way, though you might say they are more manageable than intelligence and health.<p>Growth mindset, beyond the &quot;bloody obvious&quot; [1] interpretation of it, is not something you can state as self-evident, and evidence to support the stronger interpretations is quite scarce.<p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;slatestarcodex.com&#x2F;2015&#x2F;04&#x2F;10&#x2F;i-will-never-have-the-ability-to-clearly-explain-my-beliefs-about-growth-mindset&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;slatestarcodex.com&#x2F;2015&#x2F;04&#x2F;10&#x2F;i-will-never-have-the-a...</a>