Who is the author of Hidden Potential?

Adam Grant is the author of Hidden Potential.

Motivation & Inspiration

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Hidden Potential summary

Name: Hidden Potential
Rating: 4.5 (403 reviews)
Author: Adam Grant

Adam Grant

The Science of Achieving Greater Things

4.5 (403 ratings)

16 mins

Topics

Self-Help Inspiration Success Neuroscience Career Progress

Table of Contents

Hidden Potential
Summary of 5 key ideas

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What’s in it for me? Discover a formula that will unlock your full potential.

When it comes to excellence, most people think that outstanding talent is something you’re born with. By the same token, if something isn’t hardwired into your genes, you’ll inevitably reach a level of competence that you can’t move beyond.

But research has shown that this isn’t true. Often, people who demonstrate exceptional talent as adults weren’t child prodigies. In fact, they typically started off fairly average, or worse. What ultimately distinguished them wasn’t innate talent; it was motivation.

When it comes to reaching your potential, a willingness to learn – and relearn – is more important than any natural ability. Better yet, there are certain approaches to learning you can use that will accelerate your development and allow you to reach levels of mastery you never dreamed were possible. And none of these approaches involve toiling away in a punishing manner.

In this Blink, we’ll explore some of these approaches to help you reach your full potential. And provide you with a roadmap for navigating through the inevitable set-backs you’ll face on your journey. Ready to take your performance to the stratosphere? Then let’s get started!

Character: The crucial ingredient

In late-1980s Tennessee, 79 schools participated in a study to evaluate the impact of class size on learning. The study involved 11,000 students in different classrooms, ranging from kindergarten through to third grade. Around thirty years later, American economist Raj Chetty analyzed the data collected in this study to determine if any other factors influenced the children’s long-term success. What he found was astonishing.

The now adults who were earning considerably more than their previous classmates weren’t the ones whose kindergarten teachers had focused on cognitive skills, like literacy and math. They were the kids whose teachers had encouraged non-academic skills, like being proactive, prosocial, determined, and disciplined. In the long run, kids who felt empowered to ask questions, work well with peers, tackle challenges, and stay focused became more professionally successful than those who had had higher cognitive skills at an early age.

This is great news for everyone who wants to reach their full potential. Why? It essentially supports the idea that excellence comes down to character.

Character is your capacity to prioritize what you care about over your instincts – or how you think, feel, and behave – especially when you’re under pressure. It allows you to overcome the unhelpful quirks of your personality – the tendency to be impulsive, for instance. In short, character isn’t who you innately are, but how you choose to conduct yourself. Better still, it’s something you can deliberately cultivate in order to boost your performance and success.

So, how do you go about developing character?

One of the most important habits you can adopt is to make mistakes. Yes – that’s right. Making mistakes is one of the best ways to unleash your potential.

In many cultures, children are conditioned to believe that mistake-making is detrimental. After all, the number of mistakes you make will determine the grade on your report card. But this is a huge disservice. What’s far more valuable is getting comfortable with the discomfort and awkwardness of being underprepared with little knowledge.

Say you want to learn a new language. The thought of stumbling your way through a conversation with limited vocabulary makes your stomach turn. So, you decide to study alone until you feel confident enough to test out your new skills in public. But realistically, you’re never going to feel ready. A much more effective strategy is to throw yourself in the deep end and realize that making a few – or even many – mistakes isn’t such a big deal.

Embracing discomfort allows for accelerated learning and growth. Developing your character skills is the lifeboat that will carry you through the awkwardness of learning. And every success – however small – will keep you motivated on your journey to your potential.

Be a human sponge

Half a billion years ago, when volcanic eruptions wreaked havoc on Earth, 75 percent of species were wiped out. Among the survivors was the humble sea sponge. Sea sponges feed by filtering nutrients out of the water they draw in through their outer walls, and then expelling what they don’t need. They’re remarkably resilient. If they get nibbled on or damaged, they can sometimes regrow their soft bodies. Their incredible ability to adapt to their environment can see them living for over 2,000 years.

When it comes to uncovering your hidden potential, you need to channel your inner sea sponge; absorbing, filtering, and adapting while you work toward mastering your chosen skill. Once again, your ability to do this is a choice, one that’s completely distinct from your genes or even the opportunities you were born into. To explore this further, let’s consider the journey of one high performer.

Embrace imperfection

In academic environments, striving for perfection is often what underpins learning. Students know they’ll be scored, and those scores will indicate how close they are to perfection. This encourages students to memorize and regurgitate information rather than understand it.

But perfectionism only serves us when problems are familiar or linear in nature. In the world outside school and college, life is rarely so straightforward. In fact, research shows that perfectionists have no advantage when it comes to skills acquisition or mastery. In fact, they often perform worse than their peers.

Progress through play

Evelyn Glennie is a professional percussionist who grew up in rural Scotland. Despite experiencing rejection when she first applied to London’s Royal Academy of Music, she became the first full-time solo percussionist on a global scale. She holds three Grammy Awards and has been knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. Evelyn Glennie has also been profoundly deaf since childhood.

As a child, Glennie demonstrated high levels of “sponginess” in her approach to learning music. But there was another aspect of Evelyn’s journey that tapped into her potential – joy. Evelyn was having so much fun advancing her musical talents that she didn’t see practicing as a chore. It felt like play. Despite our tendency to believe that mastery must be hard won, incorporating play into learning yields better results in the long-term.

Flip your thinking about stagnation

When we first start learning something new, we often make big leaps forward. But as we move toward mastery, the gains become smaller and more incremental – so much so that we often don’t even notice them. When this happens – BAM! We think we’ve hit a wall. But what’s actually happened is that we’ve run out of momentum.

Research by cognitive scientists Wayne Gray and John Lindstedt has revealed something fascinating – and heartening – about progress. They found that when stagnation occurs while mastering a skill, there’s always a period of decline before performance improves again. So, when you hit that wall, it’s completely normal to backtrack a little. By doing so, you fuel momentum to propel yourself beyond where you left off.

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What is Hidden Potential about?

Hidden Potential (2023) challenges the notion that only those born with natural and exceptional talent can excel intellectually, artistically or athletically. Supported by groundbreaking research, it offers a framework that any individual can use to tap into their hidden potential and achieve more than they ever thought possible.

Hidden Potential Review

Hidden Potential (2021) by Adam Grant uncovers the untapped abilities within each of us, showing how to unleash our hidden potential. Here's why this book is worth reading:

With its compelling stories and insightful research, it presents a fresh perspective on unlocking our hidden talents and achieving success.
Practical strategies are offered to help readers tap into their untapped potential and make positive changes in their lives.
By challenging conventional thinking, Hidden Potential inspires readers to embrace their unique abilities and pursue their passions, making it an engaging and empowering read.

Who should read Hidden Potential?

Novices wanting to master a challenging skill
Those who feel they’ve stagnated or plateaued
Leaders seeking to unlock the potential of others

About the Author

Adam Grant is an organizational psychologist and professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. A New York Times bestselling author, his books include Think Again, Originals, and Give and Take. His podcasts ReThinking and Work Life have millions of listeners. Grant has been named one of Fortune’s 40 Under 40.

Categories with Hidden Potential

Motivation & Inspiration Science Career & Success Personal Development

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