This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "Hidden Potential" by Adam Grant. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.
Like this article? Sign up for a free trial here.
Why do you need to accept your flaws? How can you overcome a desire to be perfect?
To stay focused on your goals, you need to acknowledge your flaws. Adam Grant explains that many people suffer from perfectionism, which counterintuitively prevents them from doing their best work.
Keep reading to learn how to overcome perfectionism so you can continue your personal growth.
Acknowledging Your Flaws
When you don’t learn how to overcome perfectionism, you exhaust yourself trying to fix unimportant problems that don’t need to be fixed. Perfectionism also causes you to emotionally punish yourself for your mistakes. This self-flagellation makes you more afraid of making mistakes, which in turn teaches you to avoid mistakes rather than learn from them. Trying to avoid mistakes is one of the most common ways people stunt their personal growth.
Grant argues that perfection shouldn’t be your ultimate goal. It’s impossible to create perfect work, he says. Once you embrace this fact, you can direct your efforts strategically rather than putting maximum effort into everything. Focus on improving the aspects of your work that will have the greatest impact on its overall quality, and let go of everything else.
Your work doesn’t need to be perfect to be groundbreaking; it just needs to have some excellent qualities. For instance, when Apple first launched the iPhone in 2007, critics derided it for being far too expensive and locked onto AT&T’s slow 2G network. If Apple had obsessed over optimizing their supply chain to lower the price of the iPhone, or tried to build their own perfect cellular network, they might have wasted millions of dollars chasing these unnecessary and potentially impossible goals. Instead, the iPhone’s user-friendly touchscreen, multitude of functions, and sleekly designed software were excellent enough for it to sell six million units in its first year and revolutionize the smartphone industry.
———End of Preview———
Like what you just read? Read the rest of the world's best book summary and analysis of Adam Grant's "Hidden Potential" at Shortform.
Here's what you'll find in our full Hidden Potential summary:
- Why you should practice skills in a way that’s both fun and uncomfortable
- Three ways to tap into your potential by connecting with the right people
- What organizations can do to achieve more on a larger scale
