I can’t verify that story, so I will refrain from comment, but I think the story with the Netziv is even more powerful. His parents gave up and decided to apprentice him to a shoemaker (because he had no hatzlacha in learning). The young boy heard this and became so distressed at the thought that he was motivated to apply himself and became the Gaon we are familiar with.
When he told this story, he would then add that had he not overheard his parents’ conversation, after 120 years he would have arrived before the Judge, Who would have asked him why he did not write the sefer Ha’amek Davar. The simple shoemaker would have been shocked, but completely unable to defend himself.