The Power of Potential: How a Nontraditional Workforce Can Lead You to Run Your Business Better

“This is a powerful, game-changing book, a book for anyone who has ever built a hiring process or managed a team. Tom's approach is changing lives.”

-Seth Godin, Author of This is Marketing

Rising Tide Car Wash in Parkland, Florida, isn’t average in any way. When Tom D’Eri and his father John bought the location in 2013, it was struggling. Now it’s one of the highest-volume washes in Florida. Its employee retention rate is five times that of its competitors. It has spun off into two additional locations that have been immediately successful, and the business is absurdly profitable. Over 500,000 cars a year drive away sparkling. Rising Tide has become a media darling, featured on The Today Show, NBC Nightly News, and in magazines including Entrepreneur, National Geographic, and Forbes.

Why so much hoopla over a successful car wash? Roughly 80 percent of Rising Tide’s workforce consists of people with autism. While part of the success comes from their mission, that doesn’t explain the excellence that permeates every aspect of the business: service quality, customer experience, teamwork, management, and organizational design. Put any aspect of the D’Eris’ operation against other businesses, and you’ll find they have the edge.

The Power of Potential tells the inspiring, surprising reason why: The wash’s excellence isn’t in spite of their unusual workforce, but because of it. Thanks to their unconventional staff, the Rising Tide team was able to discover and correct common problems that typically fly under the radar in businesses. By spotting and correcting these hidden problems, any business, with any kind of workers, can achieve unexpected wins and leave average behind. The common problems include:

• You Hire Based on Interviews
• You Think Great Talent Is the Secret to a Great Business
• Your Managers Are “Good Enough”
• You Fire Your Worst Employees

To our surprise, solving the four problems changed who we were as a company. The result was four unexpected wins that added up to a culture of excellence—but leadership is needed to reinforce what matters.

• Every Employee Feels Safe
• Accountability is a Tool for Growth
• Your Work Has Purpose
• Customers Love Their Experience

'This provocative, informative, and engaging book contains the seeds of a revolution--an inclusive future in which businesses unlock the hidden potential of employees with autism and other neurodivergent conditions by redesigning onboarding processes and creating opportunities for them to shine. It's a template for a society in which everyone is given the best chance of success.' -- Steve Silberman, author of NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity

'Everybody who is interested in getting people with autism employed in a job that gives them a sense of purpose should read this book.' -- Temple Grandin, Author of The Autistic Brain and Thinking in Pictures

'This is a powerful, game-changing book, a book for anyone who has ever built a hiring process or managed a team. Tom's approach is changing lives.' -- Seth Godin, Author of This is Marketing

'One of the top ten businesses books of 2023. The book goes way beyond a story of one business that is so exhilarating and stimulating you'll want to tell it to friends and colleagues. It ultimately provides essential advice for every manager in business, nonprofits, and government. The advice on hiring alone will have you hiring art teachers to engineers and nurses--in half the time with double your success.' -- Chip Heath, Professor at Stanford Business School and coauthor of four NYT bestsellers including Switch and The Power of Moments

'Tom's account of how he built Rising Tide Car Wash and the lessons he learned from hiring and managing a non-traditional workforce is riveting. Read it and learn how to overcome some of the most entrenched problems that hold companies back from scaling.' -- Chris Yeh, Author of Blitzscaling

Tom D'Eri has dedicated his career to unleashing human potential by creating organizational  systems and culture that empower people to grow. Tom is the Co-Founder and COO of Rising Tide Car Wash, an organization that employs over 90 individuals with autism in a successful car wash business. Tom is also the Co-Founder of Rising Tide U an organization dedicated to teaching others how to harness the autism advantage. Tom is a Forbes 30 Under 30 social entrepreneur and speaks regularly at Fortune 500 companies, international conferences, leadership development programs, and universities.