Book Review: “Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things”

In short, Hidden Potential is a book about character: why it is important to achieve great things, how we can develop it while keeping ourselves motivated, and how we can build systems (schools, organizations, and their admission processes) to evaluate character and open doors to those whose potential might not be immediately obvious.

"It’s often said that talent sets the floor, but character sets the ceiling.”

This book has some great inspirational stories about people who traveled great distances (literally and metaphorically) to achieve heights that those around them deemed impossible. It also cites the most recent research studies that help ground the stories and provide actionable insights. In the last section called Actions For Impact, Adam summarizes the key lessons and action items tying a nice little bow on his writing.

Simple, inspiring, easy to read.

However…

As I was working on my last deep dive into Hidden Potential (you can read it here), I began to notice the initial charm of the book fading away.

I believe this happened because in the last three chapters, the book deviated from its self-help narrative and shifted its focus from the proactive reader (here is what YOU can do) to the examples of proactive systems (here is what some countries, companies, and universities do).

While it fitted the theme of Hidden Potential, it interrupted the book’s flow and moved the narrative away from Here is what you can do to unlock your hidden potential to Here is how education and business systems can discover you (most of the examples are outside of the US).

It seems like the author wanted to have Part III of his book tell us how we can unlock hidden potential in others with better systems, but I don’t think he quite achieved it. Many insights were pretty generic (“cultivate a growth mindset in teachers, not only students” or “transform groups into teams”) and didn’t get enough development to become actionable. For instance, ” eliminate requirements for credentials and experience”—like, completely? I understand character skills are super important but I’d like my pharmacist to be properly educated too.

While there were some good insights here and there, and some stories were quite dramatic, I couldn’t shake off the feeling that the last third of the book was unnecessarily stretched out as if the author rushed to tie some loosely related ideas into three chapters without getting them to the point where they could have become actionable for most of his audience.

In other words, I saw a lot of hidden potential in Part III, but I don’t think the author managed to fully unearth it.

That said,

While I wish Hidden Potential had tied its narrative better towards the end, I still highly recommend getting a copy from your local library or downloading it on your listening app and giving it a chance. Parts I and II are full of insights and actions you can take right away, and although I did not particularly love Part III, it still offered me some good lessons and inspirational stories.

Overall, Hidden Potential is a book that is both useful and fun—it’s a page-turner that can teach you something new about yourself and will remind you why you should keep aspiring and never give up.

"If natural talent determines where people start, learned character affects how far they go.”

Useful Links

If you missed my deep-dive articles:

• Imperfect Sea Sponges Seeking Discomfort
• Are You Ready To Cross The Valley?
• Are You Keeping The Door Open?

To continue exploring Adam Grant’s works:

• To find Adam Grant: his website and LinkedIn page.
• To purchase?Hidden Potential?on Amazon: link.

Thank you for following me on this journey! After we dug deep into the rough looking for hidden gems, now it’s time to see if we are ready to sail the skies – with the book that is known as the world’s most popular and bestselling career handbook – What Color Is Your Parachute? by Richard N. Bolles. I’ll see you next week!