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.

Prologue: growing roses from concrete -- I. Skills of character: getting better at getting better -- Creatures of discomfort: embracing the unbearable awkwardness of learning -- Human sponges: building the capacity to absorb and adapt -- The imperfectionists: finding the sweet spot between flawed and flawless -- II. Structures for motivation: scaffolding to overcome obstacles -- Transforming the daily grind: infusing passion into practice -- Getting unstuck: the roundabout path to forward progress -- Defying gravity: the art of flying by our bootstraps -- III. Systems of opportunity: opening doors and windows -- Every child gets ahead: designing schools to bring out the best in students -- Mining for gold: unearthing collective intelligence in teams -- Diamonds in the rough: discovering uncut gems in job interviews and college admissions -- Epilogue: going the distance.