Potential preferred

Whenever I see Brandon Williams, the fitness entrepreneur profiled starting on page 31, he always asks the same thing. He even smiles as he does it.

“When are we goin’ runnin’?”

We.

As in him and me.

If Williams can see a real long-distance runner hiding somewhere inside this lanky magazine editor, I like to think he has his eye on the one trait so many of us overlook in favor of expediency, and that is potential.

I also like to think Williams is able to instantly recognize superior athletic prowess, however dormant it may be, as soon as he sees it. But that’s another column all together.

Last year Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion. An app. A free app. For a billion dollars.

A few months later Random House handed 26-year-old first-time author Lena Dunham, creator of the hit HBO comedy Girls, a book deal worth $3.7 million.

It is possible that our culture has never been more consumed with potential than it is today.

This month’s cover story is all about potential—that latent, untapped power for generating the effort to match and fuel ability.

225 begins each year by highlighting a dozen or so exceptional Baton Rougeans who we believe are on the verge of something greater in the year ahead.

Though many are relatively unknown, they are among those likely to have major impact on their communities, their fields, their lives or the lives of those around them in remarkable and often risk-filled ways.

In pop culture and politics, pundits have long been enamored with the arrival of the next big thing—often before the wave of the current big thing has crested. Who’s the new Dylan, the next Jordan, a future Obama?

The sports world is loaded with terms for potential. A scout may talk of a blue chip prospect as having a “big upside,” that “X factor,” or great “intangibles” that don’t immediately leap off the stat sheet but sure will help win some ball games.

We call those with an intriguing mix of talent and potential our “People to Watch.”

The common denominator among the most successful investors, business owners, politicians, coaches, even filmmakers, is the ability to spot the slightest glimmer of promise—true, energizing, problem-solving promise—and grow that bud into tangible benefits.

In a modern landscape built upon the pillars of technology, information and communication, innovation is at a premium, and that gives potential an edge over experience.

According to a recent Stanford University study, the potential to be good at something can seem more impressive than actually being good at that very same thing.

So in order to impress someone, forget that humble brag about a thousand likes on your latest blog post, and instead talk up the future project you believe will snag a book deal, a grant or a marquee investor.

As Baton Rouge begins to value its own potential as much as—and in some cases, even more than—its experience, exciting change will come.

I’m not excited about it yet, but maybe I’ll even get out and run. Williams is right, though. I’ll definitely need someone like him to motivate me.

As former LSU basketball coach Dale Brown loves to say, “The greatest potential in me is we.”