I believe you are misunderstanding what genius is..Being a genius doesn't mean you are necessarily going to make more money, live a life of bliss, or win in everything you do. Lots of geniuses have ended up destitute or poor. As an example, look at some of the famous writers in history. Genius simply means being able to look at things in a different way, and having a profound talent in a specific area. Mozart may have been a musical genius but that wouldn't mean he could go out and automatically get any job he wanted and make as much money as he wanted. The difference between many wealthy people and geniuses is that wealthy people are often preoccupied with money whereas geniuses get their satisfaction from exercising their talent. Case in point-William James Sidis. Perhaps, the greatest IQ the world will ever see but all he wanted to do was be left alone. He ended up dying in his 40s an apparent failure because he didn't do anything shocking to save or cure the world. The question is, was he really a failure?
I am not misunderstanding...the man claims to be able to see complex patterns, interconnections etc. that no one else can...combine that with the fact that he didn't really want to be a construction worker or a bouncer and would "do something else if he could" should sound strange...he was NOT content exercising his talent (whatever the fuck that means...he's not a musical genius or a number cruncher...he's a thinker, hardly an exercise by any stretch); matter of fact, he wanted to do something else...
A failure is defined by someone who is unable to achieve their goals. If your Mr. Sidis' goal was to die at 40 having accomplished nothing, then no, he was not a failure.
If egghead's goal was to bounce at a bar and "understand the universe" on the side, then he isn't a failure. Unfortunately, he says in that interview that he didn't particularly like doing that line of work = failure. ESPECIALLY when he's that talented intellectually.
As an aside, while this dude may be smart he's wrong on a few things:
1. He believes people with very high intelligences are more fit to decide the fate of humankind. This is tragically flawed logic. Intelligence has no correlation to morality, selflessness etc. If a ultra intelligent guy can get stuck working construction and drop out of college, he could surely fuck up the affairs of the world population should he have control of it.
2. He believes he can prove the existence of God. Not God as Albert Einstein and other modern scientists refer to it (Albert Einstein referred to the universe and its beauty as "God"; Einstein was an atheist), but a "being" with intelligence. This is very very flawed and sets him apart from today's great minds...