The stories in Adam Grant's book Hidden Potential push back on the myth of the lone genius. They show what happens when expectations are high, and people are supported, not left to figure it out alone.

Initial Thoughts After Reading

Learning about the Golden 13 made me think of Bounce by Matthew Syed. Same idea: excellence doesn’t just appear. It builds in clusters under the right conditions.

It also brought the halo effect to mind. Adam Grant talks about how we often mistake polish for potential. We let résumé credentials like McKinsey, an MBA, or an Ivy League degree stand in for actual skill. That creates two realities. First, a lot of great people never get the shot they deserve. Second, some people learn how to work the system. They know what gatekeepers are looking for and how to speak their language. Once they’re in, they can start to shift what gets noticed.

That last idea made me think about artists. There’s a tendency to treat gatekeeping and discoverability issues as a wall instead of a challenge. This book doesn’t ignore those barriers. It asks whether the real work is finding a way through or finding a way in.

What Stuck With Me

• The systems we use to spot talent often miss it. They reward polish, not potential.

• Success is rarely about individual genius. It grows in clusters with the right support.

• High expectations can unlock performance, but only when people aren’t left to figure it out alone.

• Progress over time (trajectory) is a stronger signal than early achievement.

• Belief in potential is powerful, but it has to be paired with scaffolding, mentorship, and opportunity.

• People who don’t look like the “usual” candidates often need to over-qualify to get noticed.

• Once inside the system, those same people can shift what success looks like for everyone else.

Deeper Reflections

Scaffolding: Grant calls it scaffolding. I’ve always thought of it as stacking. Different word, same idea. Potential needs support. If you want people to grow, you build the environment around them. You don’t test what they can do alone. Support isn’t a crutch. It’s a launchpad.

Becoming a Cy Young Award Winner at 38: This one stayed with me. I know what it feels like to be written off on the ball field, even if not at the professional level, and to wonder if your window is closing. Dickey changed the game by learning the knuckleball, a pitch most pitchers avoid. He didn’t do it alone. With help from Charlie Hough, Phil Niekro, and Tim Wakefield, he mastered it. It wasn’t until his mid-thirties that things started to click. In 2012, at 38 years old and sixteen years into his pro career, he won the Cy Young. What stuck with me wasn’t the award. It was the mindset shift. He found mentors, changed his approach, and stayed in the game when most would have walked away.

Growth Mindset and Environment: Believing in yourself isn’t enough. You need to be in places that believe in you, too. Grant challenges the idea that mindset alone drives success. The system around you matters just as much. It made me think about the kinds of environments that have helped me grow best and what it might look like to find or build more of them.

Becoming the First Black Navy Officers in 1944: The Golden 13 are a group of Black Navy officers who thrived under intense pressure and what many saw as impossible odds. In 1944, they became the first African Americans commissioned as officers in a segregated Navy. What stood out was how they got there. They taught each other, studied together, and lifted one another through a system that was never built for them. It’s a story of preparation, community, and belief. High expectations paired with real backing.

Grade Point Trajectory: Grant shares research showing that grade point trajectory, or improvement over time, is a stronger predictor of future success than a flat but high GPA. Progress matters more than polish. It reflects growth and resilience, not just early performance. My own path fits that curve. I was a solid B minus student in high school, and my first shot at college went poorly. But over time, my direction changed. That shift, not the starting point, has shaped everything since.

From Migrant Farmer at 6 to Astronaut at 41: José Hernández spent his childhood working in the fields with his family. His college grades weren’t perfect at first, but he kept improving. He applied to NASA’s astronaut program twelve times before finally getting accepted. Instead of walking away, he took a job as an engineer at NASA and found another way in. Gatekeepers often miss potential because they expect it to look a certain way from the start. Sometimes the path in isn’t about being the perfect candidate. Sometimes it’s about getting close enough to be seen. At 41, after more than a decade of rejections, Hernández was finally accepted into the program. Sometimes the strategy isn’t charging through the front door. Sometimes it’s finding a side entrance and letting your work speak for itself.

Final Note

Still thinking about what this means for the environments I want to build and the systems I want to challenge.