Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things

by Adam M. Grant

Recent evidence underscores the importance of conditions for learning. To master a new concept in math, science, or a foreign language, it typically takes seven or eight practice sessions. That number of reps held across thousands of students, from elementary school all the way through college.

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

If we judge people only by what they can do on day one, their potential remains hidden.

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.

The question is not how much money you earn, how many fancy titles you land, or how many awards you accumulate. Those status symbols are poor proxies for progress. 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.

I now see character less as a matter of will, and more as a set of skills.

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

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.

Character is often confused with personality, but they’re not the same. Personality is your predisposition—your basic instincts for how to think, feel, and act. Character is your capacity to prioritize your values over your instincts.

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

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.

There’s just one small problem with learning styles. They’re a myth.

The way you like to learn is what makes you comfortable, but it isn’t necessarily how you learn best.

But psychologists find that procrastination is not a time management problem—it’s an emotion management problem. When you procrastinate, you’re

not avoiding effort. You’re avoiding the unpleasant feelings that the activity stirs up. Sooner or later, though, you realize that you’re also avoiding getting where you want to go.

If we wait until we feel ready to take on a new challenge, we might never pursue it all.

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?

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

If perfectionism were a medication, the label would alert us to common side effects. Warning: may cause stunted growth. 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 not about creating intentional imperfections. It’s about accepting that flaws are inevitable—and recognizing that they don’t stop something from becoming sublime.

Beating yourself up doesn’t make you stronger—it leaves you bruised. Being kind to yourself isn’t about ignoring your weaknesses. It’s about giving yourself permission to learn from your disappointments. We

grow by embracing our shortcomings, not by punishing them. Make it feel wrong.

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

My first request isn’t for feedback or advice. It’s for a score. I ask the judges to independently rate my work on a scale from 0 to 10. No one ever says 10. Then I ask how I can get closer to 10.