Hidden Potential

Hidden Potential asserts that everyone, not just geniuses and superstars, can achieve great things, providing a three-part framework for developing character skills, sustaining long-term motivation, and designing opportunity systems that allows anyone to grow, learn, and reach their highest heights.

We tend to use the words “character” and “personality” synonymously, but according to Grant, there’s a distinction: “Personality is your predisposition — your basic instincts for how to think, feel, and act. Character is your capacity to prioritize your values over your instincts.” In other words, personality is what you want to do, whereas character is what you choose to do.

One way to develop such character skills is to start before you’re ready. As a graphic by Liz Fosslien shows, the longer you wait until you feel prepared, the slower your overall progress will be. “You don’t need to get comfortable before you can practice your skills,” Grant says. “Your comfort grows as you practice your skills.”

Other ways of “becoming a creature of discomfort” include:

Switching learning styles to what’s most appropriate for what you’re trying to learn, even if it’s not your preferred one. Going beyond your limits and then figuring out new challenges as you go along. Setting a minimum mistake target for each week or day. When failing becomes part of the plan, it hurts less.

As a high school student, in an interview with a Harvard alum, Grant dared to show him his magic tricks. His self-teaching and courage scored him a place at the school.

Don’t delay your dreams. Start before you’re ready, then improve a little every day.

Whenever I pick up my manuscript for a book about self-love, I redo the structure from scratch. It’s still too convoluted, but with each cycle, it becomes simpler. Smoother. Better. According to Grant, I’m on a slow upwards spiral — “the roundabout path to progress.” Some of humanity’s greatest achievements have happened in the second half of people’s lives. The problem is most people give up before they get there. R. A. Dickey, a baseball pitcher, languished in the Minor League for years. At 31, long past his peak, he began perfecting the knuckleball, a rare throwing technique. Having practiced his throw over 30,000 times, at 35, he signed a multi-year, million-dollar contract with the New York Mets. “The drawback of a compass is that it only gives you direction, not directions,” Grant writes. Sometimes, you have to walk all the way back to the beginning to find a better way. Or seek advice from multiple sources to find a solution where their ideas intersect. A side gig that feels like a detour can still be a springboard for a breakthrough at your main…