I had assumed that anyone who "achieved" did so with the help of an internal tyrant who established rigid standards, rules, routines, timetables, codes, and expectations. My father did. My mother did. I figured my cohorts at Yale all did, too, even if they hid it so well you couldn't tell from the outside. It never occurred to me that among other high achievers, compulsive perfectionists were the exception rather than the rule.

Aimee Liu, Gaining