I agree that a lot of times it has to do with self-perception. Sometimes, the only one who is limiting us is ourselves. If you meet the right people, make good friends and company, many things literally don't matter. Some wisdom, knowledge and great awareness of your own inherent self worth helps a lot when dealing with people in your work, neighbors, relatives and anyone who tries to make an issue just because of how you look.

From what I could remember, the main reason why I sort became a little “mentally twisted” about height later in age was because during that time I met a lot of newer people and had several personal issues (some sappy, some serious). I guess you could say it's the usual life experiences all late teens-young adults go through. The strange thing was that most of the people that made a fuss over my appearence were Asian Americans.

CEO's are generally taller statures, perhaps because we tend to “look up” to taller people, and as you mentioned, as kids the taller kids were regarded as older, so the other kids would be more likely to flock to them and react to them like an older brother–so those leadership qualities were learned at an early age.

Though me personally I was generally one of the taller kids up until 8th grade when i stopped growing, and always felt timid because I always felt people would stare at me since I stood out so much..so, there certainly are exceptions as well.