Hidden Potential

The Science of Achieving Greater Things

By: Adam Grant

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, Various

“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.

Critic reviews

Praise for Hidden Potential

“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

“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

“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

“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

“You walk away from reading [Hidden Potential] feeling like, ‘There’s more in me than I knew.’” —Oprah Winfrey

“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, author of Make Your Bed and The Wisdom of the Bullfrog

“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

Easy listen.

Great research mixed with relatable stories. Adam truly cares about supporting all people to make the world a better place.

Loved it

Loved all the great motivating story’s about never giving up on whatever your dream is.

example stories

awesome book with real life stories. i
found to be so relatable for every day living.

Adam’s most impactful book to date

The thing I love about Adam Grant is that he hands me the research studies to support the things my gut tells me. Thanks, Adam!

Inspiring!

This was the perfect listen while in the gym every morning. Thanks for the inspiration and nuggets of ideas to remind us of our hidden potential!