What if Potential is a Myth?

21 July 2026

 

I wasn't a particularly good student at school.
In fact, I was below good.

Whenever my report card came home, my father would shake his head and say the same thing,
"But my boy, you have so much potential."

At first, I believed him.
Then I became confused.
If I had so much potential... where was it?
Nobody could tell me.
Nobody could point to it.
Nobody could explain how to find it.

I was simply expected to keep stumbling through life until, one day, I accidentally bumped into this mysterious thing called "my potential."

Years later, I realised that the workplace hadn't left this way of thinking behind.

We tell people they have potential.

We identify "high-potential employees."

We build succession plans around potential.

But what exactly is it?

Can you measure it? Can you observe it? Can you coach it?

Or is it simply a label?

Here's what I think.

Potential doesn't help an organisation. Capability does.

I've watched ordinary people solve extraordinary problems when they were trusted with responsibility.

I've watched quiet employees become influential leaders because someone finally gave them the opportunity to contribute.

Nobody discovered hidden potential. They just demonstrated the capability that had never been asked for before.

And perhaps that's where we've gone wrong.

Instead of asking whether someone has potential, perhaps we should be asking whether we've created an environment where their capabilities have a chance to emerge.

The more I think about it, the more convinced I become that organisations don't benefit from potential. They benefit from contribution.

Potential is a label. Capability is observable. Contribution is measurable.

So perhaps the greatest “potential” in any organisation is rather the capability it has never thought to ask for.

 

If you would like to talk to me, please call me on +27 82 465 5481 or email me on mark@meritbusiness.com

 

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