I am actually seeing a lot of similarities between your friend and myself , and i will be grateful if you can put me through the same process you made your friend go through to realise his potential
Going through this story,
"There is an old story I was told a long time ago regarding elephants; When they are babies, they tie one of the legs to a pole, to keep it still. The elephant's mind get's conditioned, and it believes that its trapped, that it can't move for the rest of its life, even when it weighs tons and can tear a tree of the ground if it wanted to".
I can relate it to myself looking at my background, and realising that i grew up around adults who always find fault in anything i did as a child and are often saying negative things about me to my hearing. It made me to shy away from doing some things i wanted to do, i always find excuse not to venture because of the phobia of been accused of not doing it right.