Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again illuminates how we can elevate ourselves and others to unexpected heights.

We live in a world that’s obsessed with talent. We celebrate gifted students in school, natural athletes in sports, and child prodigies in music. But admiring people who start out with innate advantages leads us to overlook the distances we ourselves can travel. We can all improve at improving. And when opportunity doesn’t knock, there are ways to build a door.

Hidden Potential offers a new framework for raising aspirations and exceeding expectations. Adam Grant weaves together groundbreaking evidence, surprising insights, and vivid story­telling that takes us from the classroom to the boardroom, the playground to the Olympics, and underground to outer space. He shows that progress depends less on how hard you work than how well you learn. Growth is not about the genius you possess – it’s about the character you develop. Grant explores how to build the charac­ter skills and motivational structures to realize our own potential, and how to design systems that create opportunities for those who have been underrated and overlooked.

This book reveals how anyone can rise to achieve greater things. 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.

Review

This remarkable book reveals what it takes to become a better version of yourself. Adam Grant lights the way to developing talents that once seemed beyond your abilities and achieving goals that once seemed out of reach ― James Clear, author of ATOMIC HABITS

I read Hidden Potential in one sitting, loved it, and have been thinking about it ever since. Which is the highest praise I can give a book. This is Adam Grant's finest work-it will inspire you to bigger dreams ― Malcolm Gladwell, author of OUTLIERS and host of REVISIONIST HISTORY podcast

This brilliant book will shatter your assumptions about what it takes to improve and succeed. I wish I could go back in time and gift it to my younger self. It would've helped me find a more joyful path to progress ― Serena Williams, 23-time Grand Slam singles tennis champion

Very good... Explores how most talented and successful people were not born that way; they are simply better at learning. It's an enjoyable exploration into the difference between character and personality ― The Times

Grant takes the reader on a whistle-stop tour of the factors that lead to success . . . Policymakers and executives ought to play close attention to the final section of the book: how to build structures that create opportunity for all ― Financial Times

This is a book that should be read by parents, leaders, coaches, and every school board member in America. Adam Grant reveals that everything you think about developing potential is wrong ― Mark Cuban, Shark Tank investor, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, and cofounder of Cost Plus Drugs

Wickedly entertaining and deeply insightful, Adam Grant has done it again. You have more in common with Mozart and Steph Curry than you know, and Hidden Potential will show you how to achieve your absolute best. You'll devour it and find yourself begging for more ― U.S. Navy Admiral William H. McRaven, bestselling author of MAKE YOUR BED

Hidden Potential teaches us to reach new levels of mastery and unlock our greatest resource: our humanity. We would all be better off if we took Adam Grant's wise counsel seriously! ― Yo-Yo Ma, 19-time Grammy-winning cellist

Writing with authority and clarity, Grant examines how talents can be discovered, developed, and turned into achievement ― Kirkus *starred review*

About the Author

Adam Grant is an organizational psychologist at Wharton, where he has been the top-rated professor for seven straight years. His books have sold millions of copies, his TED talks have been viewed more than 30 million times, and he hosts the hit podcast Re:Thinking. His pioneering research on motivation and meaning has enabled people to reach their aspirations and exceed others' expectations. His viral piece on languishing was the most-read New York Times article of 2021 and the most-saved article across platforms. He has been recognized as one of the world's ten most influential management thinkers and Fortune's 40 Under 40, and has received distinguished scientific achievement awards from the American Psychological Association and the National Science Foundation. Grant received his B.A. from Harvard University and his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, and he is a former Junior Olympic springboard diver. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife and their three children.