Underachiever

An underachiever is a person who fails to achieve his or her potential or does not do as well as expected by his peers.

For the Pitchshifter song, see Underachiever (song). For the hip hop duo, see The Underachievers.

Of particular interest is academic underachievement. Studies of individuals who have not realized their apparent potential have identified learning disabilities, ADHD, and many other educational problems, and subsequently enabled methods of addressing these problems. Current theories among academic scholars prefer to address underperformance problems with remedial help.

The term is also used more generally; for example, a sports team that contains many star players but still loses games against teams with relatively little obvious talent might be termed underachieving. A stock which achieves poor profit and/or capital gains despite sound underlying business and/or assets may be called underachieving.

Within business a term called "pulling a braniff" means to underachieve against a daily/weekly/monthly/quarterly target. This term originates from Paul Braniff who was notable for not only missing his own target but also commenting on others who may have even achieved greater results than him. A related term that is usually linked to underachievement is "meerkatting" in which a notable underachiever consistently peaks above his peers in order to guide, encourage or shout abuse.

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