What Does Potential Mean?
It Means Nothing At All!
Many years ago, when American football was in its infancy in the United Kingdom, our team played another league game against a team we had thought was not as good as we were. At half-time, we were getting beaten comprehensively by our rivals. Inside the team changing rooms during the interval, one of our running backs was frustrated and exclaimed, “We should be beating this team easily; we have such potential.” The Head Coach stood up and immediately yelled, “Potential, . . . Potential, You know what potential is? Potential means you’ve done nothing yet.” He said, “Potential doesn't mean a damn thing and is overrated.” Millions of people with potential will die this year and not have achieved a single thing.
Potential generally refers to a currently unrealized ability, at least in your opinion or the opinion of someone who appears to be the expert. However, as Rania Naim expressed in her article, “Why Falling For Someone’s ‘Potential’ Is Simply Not Enough,” the big “problem with ‘potential’ is that it’s subjective; it’s based on external opinions and what we think of someone. It’s based on who we think this person could be, not who they really are.” Therein lies the problem with potential.
In other words, potential is the imagination we want to bring to life. Potential is the illusion we wish could turn into reality. — Rania Naim
In other words, ‘potential’ is not real. It is prospective, developing, latent, dormant, and unrealized. Possibilities and promise are positive words. I like positive words. I am certainly not anti-potential. However, no one achieves whatever it is in their lives they wish to do or become without some kind of action. Potential is not a ‘doing’ word but a ‘maybe’ word. You can be told you have all the potential in the universe; however, you will still be run over by someone who takes action. I submit that using the word ‘potential’ can also be dangerous in that your child or teammate may make the assumption all they have to do is wait for their potential to rise. Of course, as we all know, you can wait all your life, and what you wish will still be a wish at the end of your life. Nobody dies and exclaims what they achieved; they always exclaim, “Oh, I wish I did . . .”
Potential is like hoping to win the lottery without ever buying a ticket. Potential is like wanting to score the winning goal in the World Cup final, but you play chess instead. Of course, nothing wrong with chess but being a chess master will absolutely not get you a place in your national football team in the 2026 final at the Metlife Stadium in East Rutherford, United States. I would suggest desire is much more important to a child. Desire will take you where no amount of potential will ever lead.
Forget potential, and study the not-so-complicated formula, Desire + Action = Results.
