171 Quotes by Adam Grant

As Chris Granger, executive vice president at the NBA, explains, "Talented people are attracted to those who care about them. When you help someone get promoted out of your team, it's a short-term loss, but it's a clear long-term gain. It's easier to attract people, because word gets around that your philosophy is to help people.

It takes confident humility to admit that we're a work in progress. It shows that we care more about improving ourselves than proving ourselves.

After all, the purpose of learning isn't to affirm our beliefs; it's to evolve our beliefs.

I’m still struggling to accept that Pluto may not be a planet.

Reasoning does create a paradox: it leads both to more rule following and more rebelliousness. By explaining moral principles, parents encourage their children to comply voluntarily with rules that align with important values and to question rules that don’t. Good explanations enable children to develop a code of ethics that often coincides with societal expectations; when they don’t square up, children rely on the internal compass of values rather than the external compass of rules.

By looking on the bright side, we'll activate enthusiasm and turn on the go system.

Original thinkers doubt the default.

Givers reject the notion that interdependence is weak. Givers are more likely to see interdependence as a source of strength, a way to harness the skills of multiple people for a greater good.

If you want to be original, "the most important possible thing you could do," says Ira Glass, the producer of This American Life and the podcast Serial, "is do a lot of work. Do a huge volume of work.