Hidden Potential Quotes

“In a meta-analysis, the average correlation between perfectionism and performance at work was zero.”
― Adam M. Grant, Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things

“I’ve come to understand that unlocking hidden potential is not about the pursuit of perfection. Tolerating flaws isn’t just something novices need to do—”
― Adam M. Grant, Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things

“Literacy is no panacea, but it’s an important source of opportunity to learn.”
― Adam M. Grant, Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things

“Human Sponges Building the Capacity to Absorb and Adapt”
― Adam M. Grant, Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things

“Flooding is the opposite: a therapist might just drop a creepy-crawly on your arm. Sure, you might freak out, but having survived the ordeal unscathed, your visceral terror melts away.”
― Adam M. Grant, Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things

“of one and then see one in a closed cage across the room.”
― Adam M. Grant, Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things

“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. Accelerating learning requires a second form of courage: being brave enough to use your knowledge as you acquire”
― Adam M. Grant, Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things

“If you don’t use it, you might never gain it in the first place.”
― Adam M. Grant, Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things

“If you’re comfortable, you’re doin’ it wrong.”
― Adam M. Grant, Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things

“writing is more than a vehicle for communicating—it’s a tool for learning. Writing exposes gaps in your knowledge and logic. It pushes you to articulate assumptions and consider counterarguments. Unclear writing is a sign of unclear thinking.”
― Adam M. Grant, Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things

“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.”
― Adam M. Grant, Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things

“William James wrote, “character has set like plaster and will never soften again.”
― Adam M. Grant, Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things

“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 any person in the world can learn, almost all persons can learn,” the lead psychologist concluded, “if provided with appropriate . . . conditions of learning.”
― Adam M. Grant, Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things

“The most meaningful growth is not building our careers, it is building our character.”
― Adam Grant, Hidden Potential

“the philosopher Agnes Callard highlights, ambition is the outcome you want to attain. Aspiration is the person you hope to become.”
― Adam M. Grant, Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things

“opportunities. We deprive the world of greater things. Stretching beyond our strengths is how we reach our potential and perform at our peak. But progress is not merely a means to the end of excellence. Getting better is a worthy accomplishment in and of itself. I”
― Adam M. Grant, Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things

“What counts is not how hard you work but how much you grow.”
― Adam Grant, Hidden Potential

“In medical schools, students learn as much when they’re taught by peers as by faculty.”
― Adam M. Grant, Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things

“When you get stuck on your way up a mountain, it’s better to shift into reverse than to stand still. As you take U-turns and detours, you’ll feel as if you’re going in circles. In the short run, a straight line brings faster progress. But in the long run, loops lead to the highest peaks.”
― Adam M. Grant, Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things

“When you’re stuck, it’s usually because you’re heading in the wrong direction, you’re taking the wrong path, or you’re running out of fuel. Gaining”
― Adam M. Grant, Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things

“The downside of competing against others is that you can win without improving.”
― Adam M. Grant, Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things

“element of practice. Although he couldn’t subtract the pain from drills, he could add pleasure to the process.”
― Adam M. Grant, Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things

“Deliberate play has become especially popular in sports. Extensive evidence shows that athletes who specialize early in a single sport tend to peak quickly and then flame out. Pounding the pavement from a young age puts them at greater risk for both physical and mental health challenges. With deliberate play, it’s easier to sustain enjoyment and achieve greater things.”
― Adam M. Grant, Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things

“Harmonious passion is taking joy in a process rather than feeling pressure to achieve an outcome.”
― Adam M. Grant, Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things

“boreout is the emotional deadening you feel when you’re under-stimulated”
― Adam M. Grant, Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things

“Research demonstrates that people who are obsessed with their work put in longer hours yet fail to perform any better than their peers.”
― Adam M. Grant, Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things

“It is neither work nor play, purpose nor purposelessness that satisfies us. It is the dance between.”
― Adam M. Grant, Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things

“Then he gave me a change to make and reminded me that if I wanted to get closer to right, it had to feel wrong.”
― Adam M. Grant, Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things

“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.”
― Adam M. Grant, Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things

“The more you grow, the better you know which flaws are acceptable.”
― Adam M. Grant, Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things