It's one of the worst-kept secrets of family life that all parents have a preferred son or daughter and the rules for acknowledging it are the same everywhere: The favored kids recognize their status and keep quiet about it - the better to preserve the good thing they've got going and to keep their siblings off their back.
Our educational system is not preparing people for the 21st Century. Failure is an essential part of entrepreneurship. If you work hard you can get an 'A' pretty much guaranteed but in entrepreneurship that's not how it works.