> Skip to content
Play sample
  • Published: 30 January 2018
  • ISBN: 9780753552223
  • Imprint: Virgin Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 240

Big Potential

Five Secrets of Reaching Higher by Powering Those Around You




From the TED Talks star and bestselling author of The Happiness Advantage: how working with others will achieve vastly more than you could ever do on your own

Forget everything you thought you knew about being your best. It’s not about your own skills or talents. Instead, real success in work and life comes from your connections and relationships – the teams you build around you, the friends you make – and getting the best out of them. You hugely amplify your own potential by helping others around you to realise theirs.

A TED talk star with over 16 million views, Shawn Achor is one of the world’s leading experts on happiness and personal success – and author of the positive psychology classic The Happiness Advantage. Now, in this game-changing guide to greatness, he demolishes the myth of single individual achievement. With powerful stories, cutting-edge research and exclusive insights from Fortune 100 leaders, he shows how only by working with others will you ever reach your Big Potential.

  • Published: 30 January 2018
  • ISBN: 9780753552223
  • Imprint: Virgin Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 240

About the author

Shawn Achor

Shawn Achor is CEO of consultancy firm Good Think Inc. He gives 150 lectures a year on the science of human potential, speaking to audiences recently at Google, Adobe, UBS and Johnson and Johnson. He is a regular contributor to Harvard Business Review and Psychology Today. His TED talk on the Happiness Advantage has been viewed over 3 million times.

Also by Shawn Achor

See all

Praise for Big Potential

BIG POTENTIAL turns our notions of success upside down. It shows that the secret to achievement isn’t to focus on one’s self, but to lift up the lives of others. Then it outlines the practical, actionable steps to turn these ideas into action. This book is another reminder of the inspiring power of Shawn Achor

Daniel H. Pink, bestselling author of WHEN and DRIVE

A vibrant book on how to bring out the best in others—and how they can bring out the best in us. With enticing stories, fresh studies, contagious enthusiasm, and immensely practical tips, this is Shawn Achor at his best

Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of GIVE AND TAKE, ORIGINALS, and OPTION B with Sheryl Sandberg

With cutting-edge research, penetrating insights, and practical examples, Achor describes a new conception of "success," and in doing so, reveals exciting new strategies we can use to meet our highest potential. If you aim to live up to the possibilities of your life, you’ll find Big Potential to be a key resource

Gretchen Rubin, bestselling author of The Happiness Project and The Four Tendencies

We have long understood leadership potential as being a measure of individual performance and results. But Achor reveals that our true potential as leaders lies in our the ability to teach, inspire, and empower others to lead. He will open your eyes to the vast potential we can unleash by expanding our power and influence to those around us.

Marshall Goldsmith, executive coach and New York Times-bestselling author, ranked the number one leadership thinker in the world by Thinkers50