Hidden Potential

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again and Originals explores how we can guide others and mold ourselves to surpass our supposed limits

In life, there are few things more consequential than the judgments people make of our potential, whether we are applying to college, interviewing for a job, or trying out for a team. That kind of judgment seems only natural: if you want to predict what people will achieve tomorrow, the obvious place to start is to look at their achievements yesterday and their abilities today. But this mindset leads to two critical mistakes: ignoring the particular circumstances in which people are performing, and overlooking the actual progress they have made over time.

Hidden Potential offers a new framework for noticing and nurturing potential in individuals and groups by exploring how people can overcome a shortage of talent and opportunity to travel great distances in the face of great difficulty. Its first section examines the seemingly intangible qualities that enable people to exceed expectations in any field, from music to art to inventing, and argues that excellence depends on more than just talent and grit. The second section centers on avoiding the high price of excellence and explains how exceeding expectations doesn’t require you to become a perfectionist or workaholic—to push yourself to the brink of burnout. The final section discusses how to create cultures of opportunity—schools, teams, workplaces, and communities that exceed expectations.