Adolf Hitler and Winston Churchill both rose to greatness in spite of sad and unfortunate childhood experiences. However, the differences in the beginning of their lives led them down very separate roads to their positions of power. For Adolf Hitler, violence from his father spurned hate, which was nurtured by those he admired. This would become the basis of Hitler's motivation as a ruler. For Winston Churchill, the neglect of his parents caused him chronic depression, which he had to overcome in order to accomplish great things and win the praise of a country. However, the praise of the country could never fill the hole left in his heart that yearned for the love of a parent. .
Winston's parents had a tight agenda, his mother a socialite and his father a politician. Both were too busy being swept up in their individual lives to give Winston any of their own precious time. Since his birth he was left with his nanny and governess to raise him until he was sent to private school away from home. His parents rarely spoke with him and when they did, it was to reprimand him for some mischief and for bad grades in his studies. Their criticism of him seems to be the only active role they took in Winston's upbringing. Any letters from his parents, even bad, were welcome to him as it was the only attention that he received from them. As he progresses through years at school, his behavior and interest in academics kept declining as he dreamt of fame and, ultimately, of acceptance and of love. As time passed without any accomplishments made, Winston Churchill lost confidence in himself, and any hope for love from his parents, causing him to become seriously depressed. .
Winston Churchill's depression haunted him from tine to time as he faced trials in his life. He appropriately named the recurrence of this his "black dog". Clinical depression would cause Churchill to fall even further behind in his studies.