Growing roses in concrete

Can people build on skills that are not immediately apparent? Wharton School professor Adam Grant weighs in on the nature vs nurture debate in his book, providing some definitive answers

Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things

Author: Adam Grant

Publisher: WH Allen

Pages: 304

Price: Rs 543

Maurice Ashley, a chess master in his mid-20s whose family had emigrated recently from Jamaica to the United States, was on a mission to shatter the stereotype that darker-skinned kids lacked intelligence. Ashley’s personal struggles had convinced him that the underachievement of these youths stemmed more from an absence of opportunities rather than from a lack of talent.

Ashley began to teach chess at JHS 43, a public middle school in Harlem. Most of his students belonged to poor, often single-parent families, who lived in