Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things

by Adam M. Grant

If they were singled out by their coaches, it was not for unusual aptitude but unusual motivation. That motivation wasn’t innate; it tended to begin with a coach or teacher who made learning fun.

What look like differences in natural ability are often differences in opportunity and motivation.

Potential is not a matter of where you start, but of how far you travel. We need to focus less on starting points and more on distance traveled.

ambition is the outcome you want to attain. Aspiration is the person you hope to become.

What counts is not how hard you work but how much you grow. And growth requires much more than a mindset—it begins with a set of skills that we normally overlook.

Proactive: How often did they take initiative to ask questions, volunteer answers, seek information from books, and engage the teacher to learn outside class? Prosocial: How well did they get along and collaborate with peers? Disciplined: How effectively did they pay attention—and resist the impulse to disrupt the class? Determined: How consistently did they take on challenging problems, do more than the assigned work, and persist in the face of obstacles?

The capacities to be proactive, prosocial, disciplined, and determined stayed with students longer—and ultimately proved more powerful—than early math and reading skills.

Character is more than just having principles. It’s a learned capacity to live by your principles.

Character skills do more than help you perform at your peak—they propel you to higher peaks.

helping them reach their full potential requires something different. It’s a more focused, more transient form of support that prepares them to direct their own learning and growth. Psychologists call it scaffolding.

It’s often said that where there’s a will, there’s a way. What we overlook is that when people can’t see a path, they stop dreaming of the destination. To ignite their will, we need to show them the way.

The true measure of your potential is not the height of the peak you’ve reached, but how far you’ve climbed to get there.

Personality is your predisposition—your basic instincts for how to think, feel, and act. Character is your capacity to prioritize

If personality is how you respond on a typical day, character is how you show up on a hard day.

As more and more cognitive skills get automated, we’re in the midst of a character revolution.

Becoming a creature of discomfort can unlock hidden potential in many different types of learning. Summoning the nerve to face discomfort is a character skill—an especially important form of determination. It takes three kinds of courage: to abandon your tried-and-true methods, to put yourself in the ring before you feel ready, and to make more mistakes than others make attempts. The best way to accelerate growth is to embrace, seek, and amplify discomfort.

Comfort in learning is a paradox. You can’t become truly comfortable with a skill until you’ve practiced it enough to master it. But practicing it before you master it is uncomfortable, so you often avoid it.

“Your goal is to feel awkward and uncomfortable . . . it’s a sign the exercise is working,”

Learning a new language is about building a communication skill.”

When we’re encouraged to make mistakes, we end up making fewer of them. Early mistakes help us remember the correct answer—and motivate us to keep learning.

Improving depends not on the quantity of information you seek out, but the quality of the information you take in. Growth is less about how hard you work than how well you learn.

Becker and Woessmann argued that the engine of the Protestant Reformation wasn’t work ethic so much as literacy.

Absorptive capacity is the ability to recognize, value, assimilate, and apply new information. It hinges on two key habits. The first is how you acquire information: Do you react to what enters your field of vision, or are you proactive in seeking new knowledge, skills, and perspectives? The second is the goal you’re pursuing when you filter information: Do you focus on feeding your ego or fueling your growth?

thin skin leaves them with thick skulls.

A critic sees your weaknesses and attacks your worst self. A cheerleader sees your strengths and celebrates your best self. A coach sees your potential and helps you become a better version of yourself.

Instead of seeking feedback, you’re better off asking for advice. Feedback tends to focus on how well you did last time. Advice shifts attention to how you can do better next time.

unlocking hidden potential is not about the pursuit of perfection. Tolerating flaws isn’t just something novices need to do—it’s part of becoming an expert and continuing to gain mastery.

Perfectionism is the desire to be impeccable. The goal is zero defects: no faults, no flaws, no failures.

In an increasingly competitive world, kids face growing pressure from parents to be perfect and harsh criticism when they fall short. They learn to judge their worth by the absence of inadequacies. Every flaw is a blow to their self-esteem.

Perfectionists excel at solving problems that are straightforward and familiar.

Once you leave the predictable, controllable cocoon of academic exams, the desire to find the “correct” answer can backfire.

perfectionists tend to get three things wrong.

One: they obsess about details that don’t matter.

Two: they avoid unfamiliar situations and difficult tasks that might lead to failure.

Three: they berate themselves for making mistakes, which makes it harder to learn from them.

Perfectionism traps us in a spiral of tunnel vision and error avoidance: it prevents us from seeing larger problems and limits us to mastering increasingly narrow skills.

Wabi sabi is the art of honoring the beauty in imperfection.

It’s about accepting that flaws are inevitable—and recognizing that they don’t stop something from becoming sublime.

people who are encouraged to do their best perform worse—and learn less—than those who are randomly assigned to goals that are specific and difficult.

The ideal foil for perfectionism is an objective that’s precise and challenging. It focuses your attention on the most important actions and tells you when enough is enough.

Did you make yourself better today? Did you make someone else better today? If the answer to either question is yes, it was a good day.

People judge your potential from your best moments, not your worst. What if you gave yourself the same grace?

perfectionists tend to define excellence on other people’s terms. This focus on creating a flawless image in the eyes of others is a risk factor for depression, anxiety, burnout, and other mental health challenges.

One: Scaffolding generally comes from other people.

Two: Scaffolding is tailored to the obstacle in your path.

Three: Scaffolding comes at a pivotal point in time.

Four: Scaffolding is temporary.

the best way to unlock hidden potential isn’t to suffer through the daily grind. It’s to transform the daily grind into a source of daily joy.

boreout is the emotional deadening you feel when you’re under-stimulated.

Harmonious passion is taking joy in a process rather than feeling pressure to achieve an outcome.