Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things

by Adam M. Grant

make more mistakes than others make attempts.

procrastination is not a time management problem—it’s an emotion management problem.

“The best cure to feeling uncomfortable about making mistakes is to make more mistakes.”

It’s easy for people to be critics or cheerleaders. It’s harder to get them to be coaches.

A key to being a sponge is determining what information to absorb versus what to filter out.

Striving for social approval comes with a cost: across 105 studies with over 70,000 people, valuing extrinsic goals like popularity and appearance over intrinsic goals like growth and connection predicted lower well-being.

“As you get better and better at what you do, your ability to communicate your understanding or to help others learn that skill often gets worse and worse.”

Being a sponge starts with seeking their advice—but instead of asking to pick their brain, you ask them to retrace their route.

It’s more important to be good ancestors than dutiful descendants. Too many people spend their lives being custodians of the past instead of stewards of the future. We worry about making our parents proud when we should be focused on making our children proud.

the most important lesson to teach children is that learning is fun.

Putting people in a group doesn’t automatically make them a team.

Research shows that groups promote the people who command the most airtime—regardless of their aptitude and expertise. We mistake confidence for competence, certainty for credibility, and quantity for quality. We get stuck following people who dominate the discussion instead of those who elevate it.

In life, there are few things more consequential than the judgments people make of our potential.