1

Copyright © 2023 by Adam Grant

1
 Having an Experienced Kindergarten Teacher Predicts Higher Adult Income

$19K
Average wage earnings, ages 25–27

$18K

$17K

$16K

0 5 10 15 20
Kindergarten teacher experience (years)

2
 $25K
Average wage earnings, ages 25–27

$20K

$15K

$10K
0 20 40 60 80 100
Behavior percentile in 4th grade

3
HOW TO GET BETTER
AT SOMETHING

Change your DNA

Start before you can walk

Sharpen your mind

Strengthen your
character

4
5
6
7
MAKING MORE MISTAKES
THEORY REALITY

Looking stupid Getting smarter

Feeling shame Gaining courage

Being laughed at Laughing at yourself

Experiencing discomfort Expanding your

comfort zone

8
 HOW WE THINK LEARNING HAPPENS

Knowledge Comfort Practice Progress

HOW LEARNING ACTUALLY HAPPENS

Knowledge Discomfort Progress

Practice More Comfort

practice

9
10
11
 FILTERING GOAL

Ego Growth

Reactive Rubber Clay

ABSORBING
APPROACH
Proactive Teflon Sponge

12
 PERSONAL BEST JAVELIN THROW
86
Julius Yego
84 Ihab Abdelrahman
82
Hamish Peacock
80
Meters

78
76
74
Ansis Brūns
72
70
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

13
14
 WHICH SOURCES TO TRUST

Care
wants what’s best for you

Might not
apply Might be
to you wrong
Mine this
for gold

Credibility Familiarity
Might not be
has relevant knows you
trying to
expertise well
help you

Liz Fosslein

15
16
17
18
THE PERFECTIONISM SPIRAL
Make a
Try
mistake
something
new
“Iʼll never do
Your comfort
“Iʼll never do zone gets that again”
that again” smaller

“Iʼll never do that

again”
Make a Try something
mistake Make a new Your comfort
mistake Your comfort zone
gets smaller
zone gets smaller
Now youʼre
stuck

Make a
Try some- Try something
new
Donʼt try mistake
thing new anything
new
Try something
new
“Iʼll never do
Your comfort that again”
zone gets
smaller
Your comfort zone
gets smaller Make a
mistake

“Iʼll never do
that again”

19
20
21
22
23
24
PRACTICE WITHOUT PLAY

Seething hatred for the coach

Faking an injury so you donʼt

have to do the next drill

Sabotaging equipment so no
one has to do the next drill

Hiding in the bathroom

Somehow feeling burnout

and boreout at the same time

25
26
27
28
29
30
31
Janis Ozolins from OzolinsJanis.com

32
33
34
35
36
TEACHING vs. COACHING

Builds competence Builds confidence

Find the
answer within
yourself
Find out a lot about a Find your own
subject by teaching it motivation by
to others Sometimes more motivating others
effective than
receiving guidance

When your parents When your kids wonʼt

need tech support Can work even listen to you
if you have no
idea what
youʼre
“We will learn this” doing “We can do this”

37
 CREDIBILITY

Ignorant Knowledgeable

Threatened:
Challenged:
Doubter I don’t have
EXPECTATIONS

I will prove them wrong

what it takes

Unmoved: Empowered:
Believer
They’re easily impressed I will prove them right

38
39
40
41
Sources: Ripley, The Smartest Kids in the World; Hanushek and Woessmann, The Knowledge Capital of Nations.
For the years before the PISA was introduced, economists created a common metric to compare different tests
administered in each country.

42
Inspired by Edgar Schein’s iceberg model of culture

43
Finland’s proficiency trend across PISA cycles

44
45
46
 It’s Very Extraverted at the Top

% of extraverts, ambiverts, & introverts by level

33%

71%
78%
83%
88%
93%
33%

33% 23%
21%
17%
11%
6% 2% 1% 1% 7% 0%

General Supervisors First-Line Mid-Level Executives Top-Level

Population Managers Managers Executives

Source: research by Stephan Dilchert and Deniz Ones with over 4,000 U.S. leaders and managers

47
48
49
50
51
52
53
 EXPERIENCE REQUIRED
Experience required

@MATTSURELEE

Getting a Having a Owning a Getting drafted Entry-level

dog baby firearm into the miltary job

54
55
56
57
58
59
ACTIONS FOR IMPACT

To take a quiz about your hidden potential, visit www.adamgrant.net.

The learning process isn’t finished when we acquire knowledge. It’s
complete when we consistently apply that knowledge. Here are my top
forty practical takeaways for unlocking hidden potential and achieving
greater things.

I. BUILD CHARACTER SKILLS

1. Unleash hidden potential through character skills. The people who grow
the most aren’t the smartest people in the room. They’re the ones
who strive to make themselves and others smarter. When opportunity
doesn’t knock, look for ways to build a door— or climb through a
window.

A. Become a creature of discomfort

2. Don’t be afraid to try a new style. Instead of focusing on the way you like
to learn, embrace the discomfort of matching the method to the task.
Reading and writing are usually best for critical thinking. Listening is

60
236 | ACTIONS FOR IMPACT

ideal for understanding emotions, and doing is better for remembering

information.
3. Use it or never gain it at all. Put yourself in the ring before you feel ready.
You don’t need to get comfortable before you can practice your skills—
your comfort grows as you practice your skills. As polyglots show us,
even experts have to start from day one.
4. Seek discomfort. Instead of just striving to learn, aim to feel uncomfort‑
able. Pursuing discomfort sets you on a faster path to growth. If you
want to get it right, it has to first feel wrong.
5. Set a mistake budget. To encourage trial and error, set a goal for the
minimum number of mistakes you want to make per day or per week.
When you expect to stumble, you ruminate about it less— and improve
more.

B. Become a sponge

6. Increase your absorptive capacity. Seek out new knowledge, skills, and
perspectives to fuel your growth—not feed your ego. Progress hinges
on the quality of the information you take in, not on the quantity of
information you seek out.
7. Ask for advice, not feedback. Feedback is backward‑looking—it leads
people to criticize you or cheer for you. Advice is forward‑looking—it
leads people to coach you. You can get your critics and cheerleaders to
act more like coaches by asking a simple question: “What’s one thing
I can do better next time?”
8. Figure out which sources to trust. Decide what information is worth
absorbing— and which should be filtered out. Listen to the coaches
who have relevant expertise (credibility), know you well (familiarity),
and want what’s best for you (care).
9. Be the coach you hope to have. Demonstrate that honesty is the highest
expression of loyalty. Model effective coaching by being forthcoming
in what you say and respectful in how you say it. Show people how easy

61
 ACTIONS FOR IMPACT | 237

it is to hear a hard truth from someone who believes in their potential

and cares about their success.

C. Become an imperfectionist

10. Strive for excellence, not perfection. Progress comes from maintaining
high standards, not eliminating every flaw. Practice wabi sabi, the art
of honoring beauty in imperfection, by identifying some shortcomings
that you can accept. Consider where you truly need the best and where
you can settle for good enough. Mark your growth with Eric Best’s
questions: Did you make yourself better today? Did you make someone
else better today?
11. Enlist judges to gauge your progress. To figure out whether you’ve created
a minimum lovable product, ask a few people to independently rate
your work on a scale of 0 to 10. Whatever score you receive, ask them
how you can get closer to 10. Be sure to set an acceptable as well as
aspirational result— and don’t forget that to get high scores on your
top priorities, you may have to be satisfied with lower scores on the
others.
12. Be your own last judge. It’s better to disappoint others than to disappoint
yourself. Before you release something into the world, assess whether
it represents you well. If this was the only work people saw of yours,
would you be proud of it?
13. Engage in mental time travel. When you’re struggling to appreciate
your progress, consider how your past self would view your current
achievements. If you knew five years ago what you’d accomplish now,
how proud would you have been?

II. SET UP SCAFFOLDING TO OVERCOME OBSTACLES

14. Look outward for the right support at the right time. Every challenge
requires its own support. The support you need isn’t permanent—it’s

62
238 | ACTIONS FOR IMPACT

a temporary structure that gives you a foothold or a lift so you can keep
climbing on your own.

A. Turn practice into play

15. Turn the daily grind into a source of daily joy. To maintain harmonious
passion, design practice around deliberate play. Set up fun skill‑building
challenges—like Evelyn Glennie learning to play a Bach piece on a snare
drum, Steph Curry trying to score twenty‑ one points in a minute, or
medical residents honing their nonverbal communication skills by using
nonsense words in improv comedy games.
16. Compete against yourself. Measure your progress over time, not against
an opponent. The risk of competing against others is that you can win
without getting better. When you compete against yourself, the only
way to win is to grow.
17. Don’t hold yourself hostage to a fixed routine. It’s possible to avoid burnout
and boreout by introducing novelty and variety into your practice. You
can alternate between different skills you’re practicing or switch up the
tools and methods you use to learn those skills. Even small tweaks can
make a big difference.
18. Be proactive about rest and recovery. Don’t wait until you’re burned out
or bored out to take breaks—build them into your schedule. Taking
time off helps to sustain harmonious passion, unlock fresh ideas, and
deepen learning. Relaxing is not a waste of time; it’s an investment in
well‑being.

B. Take the roundabout path to progress

19. When you’re stuck, back up to move forward. When you hit a dead end, it
might be time to turn around and find a new path. It feels like regressing,
but it’s often the only way to find a route to progress.

63
 ACTIONS FOR IMPACT | 239

20. Find a compass. You don’t need a map to start on a new route—you just
need a compass to gauge whether you’re heading in the right direction.
A good compass is a credible source that signals when you’re going off
course.
21. Seek multiple guides. Instead of relying on a single expert or mentor,
remember that the best directions come from multiple guides. Ask them
about the landmarks and turning points from their own journeys—
and tell them about the roads you’ve taken so far. As they drop pins,
you can piece them together into a route that works for you.
22. Find a side gig. When you find yourself languishing, you can build
momentum by taking a detour to a new destination. When you make
progress in a side project or hobby, you rack up small wins, which
remind you that forward movement is possible.

C. Fly by your own bootstraps

23. Teach what you want to learn. The best way to learn something is to teach
it. You understand it better after you explain it— and you remember it
better after you take the time to recall it. Like the Golden Thirteen, you
can do this in groups, with each member teaching a distinct skill or
slice of information.
24. Build confidence by coaching others. When you’re doubting your ability
to overcome an obstacle, instead of seeking advice, try giving advice.
Guiding others through a challenge reminds you that you have the
resources you need to tackle it. The advice you give is usually the advice
you need to take.
25. Harness both high and low expectations as motivation. If ignorant naysayers
doubt you, take it as a challenge. Instead of letting them crush your
confidence, recognize it as an opportunity to prove them wrong. And
when credible believers are behind you, rise to the occasion and prove
them right.

64
240 | ACTIONS FOR IMPACT

26. Be a good ancestor. When your faith falters, recall who you’re fighting
for. Our deepest reserves of resilience come from knowing that other
people are counting on us.

III. BUILD SYSTEMS OF OPPORTUNITY

27. Open doors for people who are underrated and overlooked. Create systems
that invest in and create opportunities for all—not just gifted students
and high‑potential employees. A good system gives underdogs and late
bloomers the chance to show how far they’ve come.

A. Design schools to bring out the best in all students

28. Don’t waste a brain. Recognize that intelligence comes in many forms,
and every child has the potential to excel. Cultivate a growth mindset
in teachers, not only in students. Gauge success by the progress of
every student, not just those at the top.
29. Professionalize education. Following Finland’s example, train and treat
teachers as trusted professionals. When teachers are equipped and en‑
couraged to stay up‑to‑ date on the latest evidence, coach one another,
and shape the curriculum, the next generation can achieve greater
things.
30. Keep students with the same teachers for multiple years. Looping allows
teachers to specialize in their students, not just their subjects. With
more time to get to know each student personally, teachers can become
coaches and mentors, tailoring their instructional and emotional
support to help all students reach their potential.
31. Give students the freedom to explore and share their individual interests.
The most important lesson to teach students is that learning is fun.
When students get to select the activity stations, books, and projects that
interest them, they’re more likely to develop intrinsic motivation. When

65
 ACTIONS FOR IMPACT | 241

they present on the topics they love, it reinforces their enthusiasm—

and gives their classmates the chance to catch it.

B. Unearth collective intelligence in teams

32. Transform groups into teams. Collective intelligence depends on

cohesion— aligning a team around shared responsibility for a mean‑
ingful mission. When people believe they need one another to succeed
in reaching an important goal, they become more than the sum of
their parts.
33. Choose leaders based on prosocial skills. Instead of promoting babblers
and ball hogs, elevate people who put the mission above their ego—
and prioritize team cohesion over personal glory. When teams are
eager to contribute, the most effective leader is not the loudest talker,
but the best listener.
34. Shift from brainstorming to brainwriting. For more balanced participation
and better solutions, before you meet as a group, have people generate
and evaluate ideas independently. Once all the ideas are on the table and
all the voices are in the room, have the group select and refine the most
promising possibilities.
35. Replace the corporate ladder with a lattice system. Instead of leaving it up
to a single boss to shoot down suggestions, give people multiple paths
to speak up. If people can go to more than one leader, a single no can’t
kill an idea— and a single yes can be enough to save it.

C. Discover uncut gems in job interviews and college applications

36. Eliminate requirements for credentials and experience. When evaluating

others, beware of mistaking past accomplishments and experience for
future potential. Background and talent determine where people start,
but character skills shape how far they can climb.

66
242 | ACTIONS FOR IMPACT

37. Account for degree of difficulty. Struggles don’t necessarily reflect the
absence of ability— often they reveal the presence of adversity. To ac‑
count for the obstacles candidates have faced, put their performance
in context by comparing them to peers in their school, major, and
neighborhood.
38. Use trajectories in evaluations. It’s not enough to look at recent or average
performance—the trajectory of performance over time matters more.
An upward slope is a clue that candidates have overcome adversity.
39. Reimagine interviews to set candidates up to succeed. Instead of designing
interviews to maximize stress, create opportunities for candidates to
shine. Invite applicants to share what they love and showcase their
strengths. Afterward, ask if they thought their performance represented
them well— and if not, give them a do‑ over.
40. Redefine success. The most meaningful form of performance is progress.
The ultimate mark of potential is not the height of the peak you’ve
reached, but the distance you’ve traveled— and helped others travel.

67
 ACTIONS FOR IMPACT

To take a quiz about your hidden potential, visit www.adamgrant.net.

The learning process isn’t finished when we acquire knowledge. It’s
complete when we consistently apply that knowledge. Here are my top
forty practical takeaways for unlocking hidden potential and achieving
greater things.

I. BUILD CHARACTER SKILLS

1. Unleash hidden potential through character skills. The people who grow
the most aren’t the smartest people in the room. They’re the ones
who strive to make themselves and others smarter. When opportunity
doesn’t knock, look for ways to build a door— or climb through a
window.

A. Become a creature of discomfort

2. Don’t be afraid to try a new style. Instead of focusing on the way you like
to learn, embrace the discomfort of matching the method to the task.
Reading and writing are usually best for critical thinking. Listening is

Hidden_9780593653142_all_6p_r1.indd 235
68 8/23/23 8:13 PM
236 | ACTIONS FOR IMPACT

ideal for understanding emotions, and doing is better for remembering

information.
3. Use it or never gain it at all. Put yourself in the ring before you feel ready.
You don’t need to get comfortable before you can practice your skills—
your comfort grows as you practice your skills. As polyglots show us,
even experts have to start from day one.
4. Seek discomfort. Instead of just striving to learn, aim to feel uncomfort‑
able. Pursuing discomfort sets you on a faster path to growth. If you
want to get it right, it has to first feel wrong.
5. Set a mistake budget. To encourage trial and error, set a goal for the
minimum number of mistakes you want to make per day or per week.
When you expect to stumble, you ruminate about it less— and improve
more.

B. Become a sponge

6. Increase your absorptive capacity. Seek out new knowledge, skills, and
perspectives to fuel your growth—not feed your ego. Progress hinges
on the quality of the information you take in, not on the quantity of
information you seek out.
7. Ask for advice, not feedback. Feedback is backward‑looking—it leads
people to criticize you or cheer for you. Advice is forward‑looking—it
leads people to coach you. You can get your critics and cheerleaders to
act more like coaches by asking a simple question: “What’s one thing
I can do better next time?”
8. Figure out which sources to trust. Decide what information is worth
absorbing— and which should be filtered out. Listen to the coaches
who have relevant expertise (credibility), know you well (familiarity),
and want what’s best for you (care).
9. Be the coach you hope to have. Demonstrate that honesty is the highest
expression of loyalty. Model effective coaching by being forthcoming
in what you say and respectful in how you say it. Show people how easy

69
 ACTIONS FOR IMPACT | 237

it is to hear a hard truth from someone who believes in their potential

and cares about their success.

C. Become an imperfectionist

10. Strive for excellence, not perfection. Progress comes from maintaining
high standards, not eliminating every flaw. Practice wabi sabi, the art
of honoring beauty in imperfection, by identifying some shortcomings
that you can accept. Consider where you truly need the best and where
you can settle for good enough. Mark your growth with Eric Best’s
questions: Did you make yourself better today? Did you make someone
else better today?
11. Enlist judges to gauge your progress. To figure out whether you’ve created
a minimum lovable product, ask a few people to independently rate
your work on a scale of 0 to 10. Whatever score you receive, ask them
how you can get closer to 10. Be sure to set an acceptable as well as
aspirational result— and don’t forget that to get high scores on your
top priorities, you may have to be satisfied with lower scores on the
others.
12. Be your own last judge. It’s better to disappoint others than to disappoint
yourself. Before you release something into the world, assess whether
it represents you well. If this was the only work people saw of yours,
would you be proud of it?
13. Engage in mental time travel. When you’re struggling to appreciate
your progress, consider how your past self would view your current
achievements. If you knew five years ago what you’d accomplish now,
how proud would you have been?

II. SET UP SCAFFOLDING TO OVERCOME OBSTACLES

14. Look outward for the right support at the right time. Every challenge
requires its own support. The support you need isn’t permanent—it’s

70
238 | ACTIONS FOR IMPACT

a temporary structure that gives you a foothold or a lift so you can keep
climbing on your own.

A. Turn practice into play

15. Turn the daily grind into a source of daily joy. To maintain harmonious
passion, design practice around deliberate play. Set up fun skill‑building
challenges—like Evelyn Glennie learning to play a Bach piece on a snare
drum, Steph Curry trying to score twenty‑ one points in a minute, or
medical residents honing their nonverbal communication skills by using
nonsense words in improv comedy games.
16. Compete against yourself. Measure your progress over time, not against
an opponent. The risk of competing against others is that you can win
without getting better. When you compete against yourself, the only
way to win is to grow.
17. Don’t hold yourself hostage to a fixed routine. It’s possible to avoid burnout
and boreout by introducing novelty and variety into your practice. You
can alternate between different skills you’re practicing or switch up the
tools and methods you use to learn those skills. Even small tweaks can
make a big difference.
18. Be proactive about rest and recovery. Don’t wait until you’re burned out
or bored out to take breaks—build them into your schedule. Taking
time off helps to sustain harmonious passion, unlock fresh ideas, and
deepen learning. Relaxing is not a waste of time; it’s an investment in
well‑being.

B. Take the roundabout path to progress

19. When you’re stuck, back up to move forward. When you hit a dead end, it
might be time to turn around and find a new path. It feels like regressing,
but it’s often the only way to find a route to progress.

71
 ACTIONS FOR IMPACT | 239

20. Find a compass. You don’t need a map to start on a new route—you just
need a compass to gauge whether you’re heading in the right direction.
A good compass is a credible source that signals when you’re going off
course.
21. Seek multiple guides. Instead of relying on a single expert or mentor,
remember that the best directions come from multiple guides. Ask them
about the landmarks and turning points from their own journeys—
and tell them about the roads you’ve taken so far. As they drop pins,
you can piece them together into a route that works for you.
22. Find a side gig. When you find yourself languishing, you can build
momentum by taking a detour to a new destination. When you make
progress in a side project or hobby, you rack up small wins, which
remind you that forward movement is possible.

C. Fly by your own bootstraps

23. Teach what you want to learn. The best way to learn something is to teach
it. You understand it better after you explain it— and you remember it
better after you take the time to recall it. Like the Golden Thirteen, you
can do this in groups, with each member teaching a distinct skill or
slice of information.
24. Build confidence by coaching others. When you’re doubting your ability
to overcome an obstacle, instead of seeking advice, try giving advice.
Guiding others through a challenge reminds you that you have the
resources you need to tackle it. The advice you give is usually the advice
you need to take.
25. Harness both high and low expectations as motivation. If ignorant naysayers
doubt you, take it as a challenge. Instead of letting them crush your
confidence, recognize it as an opportunity to prove them wrong. And
when credible believers are behind you, rise to the occasion and prove
them right.

72
240 | ACTIONS FOR IMPACT

26. Be a good ancestor. When your faith falters, recall who you’re fighting
for. Our deepest reserves of resilience come from knowing that other
people are counting on us.

III. BUILD SYSTEMS OF OPPORTUNITY

27. Open doors for people who are underrated and overlooked. Create systems
that invest in and create opportunities for all—not just gifted students
and high‑potential employees. A good system gives underdogs and late
bloomers the chance to show how far they’ve come.

A. Design schools to bring out the best in all students

28. Don’t waste a brain. Recognize that intelligence comes in many forms,
and every child has the potential to excel. Cultivate a growth mindset
in teachers, not only in students. Gauge success by the progress of
every student, not just those at the top.
29. Professionalize education. Following Finland’s example, train and treat
teachers as trusted professionals. When teachers are equipped and en‑
couraged to stay up‑to‑ date on the latest evidence, coach one another,
and shape the curriculum, the next generation can achieve greater
things.
30. Keep students with the same teachers for multiple years. Looping allows
teachers to specialize in their students, not just their subjects. With
more time to get to know each student personally, teachers can become
coaches and mentors, tailoring their instructional and emotional
support to help all students reach their potential.
31. Give students the freedom to explore and share their individual interests.
The most important lesson to teach students is that learning is fun.
When students get to select the activity stations, books, and projects that
interest them, they’re more likely to develop intrinsic motivation. When

73
 ACTIONS FOR IMPACT | 241

they present on the topics they love, it reinforces their enthusiasm—

and gives their classmates the chance to catch it.

B. Unearth collective intelligence in teams

32. Transform groups into teams. Collective intelligence depends on

cohesion— aligning a team around shared responsibility for a mean‑
ingful mission. When people believe they need one another to succeed
in reaching an important goal, they become more than the sum of
their parts.
33. Choose leaders based on prosocial skills. Instead of promoting babblers
and ball hogs, elevate people who put the mission above their ego—
and prioritize team cohesion over personal glory. When teams are
eager to contribute, the most effective leader is not the loudest talker,
but the best listener.
34. Shift from brainstorming to brainwriting. For more balanced participation
and better solutions, before you meet as a group, have people generate
and evaluate ideas independently. Once all the ideas are on the table and
all the voices are in the room, have the group select and refine the most
promising possibilities.
35. Replace the corporate ladder with a lattice system. Instead of leaving it up
to a single boss to shoot down suggestions, give people multiple paths
to speak up. If people can go to more than one leader, a single no can’t
kill an idea— and a single yes can be enough to save it.

C. Discover uncut gems in job interviews and college applications

36. Eliminate requirements for credentials and experience. When evaluating

others, beware of mistaking past accomplishments and experience for
future potential. Background and talent determine where people start,
but character skills shape how far they can climb.

74
242 | ACTIONS FOR IMPACT

37. Account for degree of difficulty. Struggles don’t necessarily reflect the
absence of ability— often they reveal the presence of adversity. To ac‑
count for the obstacles candidates have faced, put their performance
in context by comparing them to peers in their school, major, and
neighborhood.
38. Use trajectories in evaluations. It’s not enough to look at recent or average
performance—the trajectory of performance over time matters more.
An upward slope is a clue that candidates have overcome adversity.
39. Reimagine interviews to set candidates up to succeed. Instead of designing
interviews to maximize stress, create opportunities for candidates to
shine. Invite applicants to share what they love and showcase their
strengths. Afterward, ask if they thought their performance represented
them well— and if not, give them a do‑ over.
40. Redefine success. The most meaningful form of performance is progress.
The ultimate mark of potential is not the height of the peak you’ve
reached, but the distance you’ve traveled— and helped others travel.

75