As Piccolo said, he was too pampered by his parents in his early ages to even realize his talents. Piccolo decided to start train him by leaving him on an island for six months to learn independence before teaching him anything at all. After one year of training, Gohan became a much more independent and strong in character.
Even though Gohan became more independent, he still lacked the kind of confidence that his father had, which was evident when he fled from where he was supposeed to attack Nappa in his first battle against the Saiyans. His lacked of confidence persisted even after he became the most powerful warrior (Super Saiyan 2) in the epic battle against Cell. During the "Kame Hame Ha" final confrontation between the two of them, Gohan was about to give up the battle. During that time, his father had more confidence in him than he did himself as Goku motivated Gohan to unleash his full potential to completely destroy Cell.
During the Buu saga, Gohan went to train to become Mystical Gohan with the Z sword training. After this, he put up a pretty good fight against Majin Buu but was eventually overcome and absorbed by Buu.
Because his mother had always wanted him to be a scholar, Gohan has a dilemma between fighting and studying, even though he is equally assiduous in both. Because of the constant invasion "evil," Gohan focused on finghting. However, he finally got the opportunity to become a scholar after Buu was defeated and realized his mother's wishes.
Gohan also marries Videl and has a daughter, Pan.
