The Nine Questions of Breakthrough Achievement

From discovering new drug therapies to winning triathlons, the capacity for human achievement is humbling. NASA scientists reached Pluto this week, beaming back stunning imagery of the distant planet. Brian Acton and Jam Koum, who founded WhatsApp in 2009, sold their startup to Google for $19 billion just five years later. Easton LaChapelle built a robotic hand out of Legos and fishing wire in his bedroom at age 14, and his invention is now helping amputees around the world.

Triumphs take man...