Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things

Adam Grant

Oct 2023 · Penguin Random House Audio · Narrated by Adam Grant, Maurice Ashley, R.A. Dickey, Evelyn Glennie, Sara Maria Hasbun, Francis Idehen, Alison Levine, Benny Lewis, Kari Louhivuori, Nelli Louhivuori, Brandon Payne, Richard Pine, Gil Winch, and Various

About this audiobook

“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

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 distance we ourselves can travel. We underestimate the range of skills that we can learn and how good we can become. 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.

Many writers have chronicled the habits of superstars who accomplish great things. 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.


Featuring Maurice Ashley, William DeMerritt , R.A. Dickey, Jane Dutton, Kevin R. Free, Evelyn Glennie, Sara Maria Hasbun, Francis Idehen, Lauren Klein, Helen Laser, Alison Levine, Benny Lewis, Kari Louhivuori, Nelli Louhivuori, Brandon Payne, Richard Pine, Paul Stillwell, Julianna Wilson, and Gil Winch. Special appearances by Dave Barry, Eric Best, Amy Edmondson, Mellody Hobson, Steve Martin, Lin Manuel Miranda, John Spencer Jr., Gil Winch, Anita Woolley, and Julius Yego, and featuring members of the Golden 13 Samuel Barnes, George Cooper, John Dille, Frank Sublett, and William White.


This audiobook edition features clips from the TED podcasts WorkLife and ReThinking, courtesy of TED.

It also includes audio from the following sources:

“Anthem” by Leonard Cohen courtesy of Sony Music Entertainment. Written by Leonard Cohen, courtesy of Sony Music Publishing. 
 
“Evelyn Glennie Improvisation on Drums” by Evelyn Glennie, © copyright 2023 Evelyn Glennie, used by permission of Evelyn Glennie.
 
“Golden 13 Interviews” Courtesy of the US Naval Institute.
 
“Julius Yego - The YouTube Man” courtesy of GoPro, Inc.
 
Stephen Colbert at the White House Correspondents Dinner: Courtesy CNN.
 
Excerpts of BORN STANDING UP reproduced with the permission of Simon & Schuster Audio, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., from BORN STANDING UP by Steve Martin.
©2007 40 Share Productions, Inc. All rights reserved.
(P)2007 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.


* This audiobook edition includes a downloadable PDF of charts, graphs, images, and actions for impact.

Ratings and reviews

The book content is great and thoughtful. The quality of the audiobook is why I am giving 3 stars - the narrator whistles their s's and has a very noticeable eastern Appalachian O sound (think Philly, Pittsburgh, Baltimore "Joe FlaccO") and greatly distracts my ability to focus on the content because of the way they pronounce everything. I've never run into this issue before, and it makes me wish I bought the ebook instead of the audiobook. don't get me wrong, this is not a personal attack on the narrator, but more of a criticism of audiobook quality and narrator choice.

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.