I’ve been traveling more than usual lately, speaking to corporate audiences in the lead-up to the launch of my new book, Think Like a Rocket Scientist. After most keynotes, someone from the audience approaches me with the same question: What was it like to write a book? I would often …
Motivation
Why you should shoot for the Moon
In September 1962, President John F. Kennedy stood before a packed Rice University stadium and pledged to land a man on the Moon and return him safely to the Earth before the decade was out. It appeared to most observers that Kennedy was blindly hoping for a miracle. JFK asked …
We need to drop this word from everyday vocabulary
When I first started writing, I had a set routine. I’d start first thing in the morning. I’d make myself a cup of coffee, clean my desk, put my noise-cancelling headphones on, read a chapter from a great book to put myself in the right mindset, close the door to …
The one question you should ask before doing anything
I recently developed what I would consider a healthy obsession with the poetry of Nayyirah Waheed. I’ve never been a poetry-reading person—making room only for the occasional Rumi—which is somewhat ironic since my first name (Ozan) is Turkish for poet. Yet, the simplicity of Waheed’s poems—and her healthy disregard for …