Hidden Potential
Adam Grant, a Wharton organizational psychologist, argues that extraordinary outcomes come less from raw talent than from "character skills," the learned habits of seeking feedback, embracing discomfort, and treating mistakes as data. Hidden Potential builds the case across three parts: Skills of Character, Structures for Motivation, and Systems of Opportunity. Grant draws from research on athletes, musicians, polyglots, and underdogs, and pairs each chapter with practical advice for becoming the kind of learner whose ceiling keeps rising.
Where Hidden Potential keeps showing up
Two of our editors' lists feature this novel.
Also by Adam Grant
What you might want to know about Hidden Potential
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
A Wharton psychologist argues that extraordinary outcomes come from learnable character skills, not raw talent, and shows what those skills look like in practice.
Hidden Potential argues that what people achieve depends less on starting talent and more on character skills and learning systems. Adam Grant draws on research about how high performers grow over time and how organizations can structure environments to surface latent capacity.
Hidden Potential (2023) is Adam Grant's most recent book after Think Again (2021). The two share his interest in growth and learning but cover different terrain. Each works as a standalone.
Hidden Potential was written by Adam Grant, published in 2023 by Penguin Publishing Group.
Hidden Potential is 304 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Hidden Potential takes most readers 5 to 7 hours to finish.
Hidden Potential is a standalone novel by Adam Grant, not part of a series.
Hidden Potential is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
