Famous Failures

Scott Harrison is the founder and CEO of charity: water, and the New York Times Bestselling author of Thirst: A Story of Redemption, Compassion, and a Mission to Bring Clean Water to the World. In 13 years, with the help of more than 1 million donors worldwide, charity: water has raised more than $400 million and funded more than 44,000 water projects in 28 countries. When completed, those projects will provide over 10 million people with clean, safe drinking water.

If you would like to help bring clean water to the world, consider joining charity:water’s monthly donation program, The Spring at thespring.com. If you sign up, forward your receipt to [email protected] and I will send you a free, personalized, and autographed copy of my forthcoming book Think Like a Rocket Scientist.

In this episode Scott and I discuss:

• How Scott transformed himself from hard-partying nightclub promoter with substance abuse problems to a global humanitarian organization founder
• How Scott’s first humanitarian mission in war-torn Liberia inspired the creation of charity: water
• Why being a philanthropic outsider was an advantage for Scott when he started charity: water
• Scott’s three key elements to great storytelling
• Why Scott celebrated the workers who crashed a million-dollar well drilling rig
• What Scott would say to his younger self who founded charity: water

Resources mentioned

• The Spring
• Video about charity:water’s work in India

My book, Think Like a Rocket Scientist: Simple Strategies You Can Use to Make Giant Leaps in Work and Life, is now available for pre-order (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Indiebound).

I’ve been ecstatic about the early reviews. The book was named a “must read” by Susan Cain (NYT Bestselling Author of Quiet), “endlessly fascinating” by Daniel Pink (NYT Bestselling Author of Drive and A Whole New Mind), and “bursting with practical insights” by Adam Grant (NYT Bestselling Author of Originals).

If you pre-order the book, you’ll get digital access to the book to read on your favorite device within seven days of your pre-order. That means you can start reading it months before the book is released to the public.

You’ll also get pre-order bonuses worth at least 10 times the cost of the book. You can check out the bonuses at rocketsciencebook.com.

I’m personally donating my royalties from the pre-order sales of the book (up to $10,000) to charity: water. Every 10 pre-orders will bring clean water to 1 person in need.

BJ Fogg is a behavioral scientist with deep experience in innovation and teaching. At Stanford University he runs the Behavior Design Lab and also teaches his models and methods in graduate seminars. On the industry side, he trains innovators to use his work so they can create solutions that influence behavior. The focus areas include health, financial wellbeing, learning, productivity, and more.

BJ has a new book, Tiny Habits: The Small Changes that Change Everything, which came out today, on December 31st, 2019. 

To learn more about Tiny Habits, visit tinyhabits.com. 

In this episode BJ and I discuss:

• How Greek philosophy inspired BJ to study persuasive technology
• Why BJ’s early theories on the future of technology earned him poor grades and puzzled looks
• What common modern practice will be seen as low-status behavior in the near future
• How people can adopt new behaviors even when they lack the motivation to change
• The three strategies that add up to BJ’s Tiny Habits behavioral change method
• How BJ learned to get over failure and keep trying new things
• How overcoming compulsive snacking taught BJ empathy toward others
• How you can the tiny Habits to untangle your own unwanted behaviors

Resources mentioned

Rhetoric by Aristotle

Mobile Persuasion: 20 Perspectives on the Future of Behavior Change, edited by BJ Fogg and Dean Eckles

My book, Think Like a Rocket Scientist: Simple Strategies You Can Use to Make Giant Leaps in Work and Life, is now available for pre-order (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Indiebound).

I’ve been ecstatic about the early reviews. The book was named a “must read” by Susan Cain (NYT Bestselling Author of Quiet), “endlessly fascinating” by Daniel Pink (NYT Bestselling Author of Drive and A Whole New Mind), and “bursting with practical insights” by Adam Grant (NYT Bestselling Author of Originals).

If you pre-order the book, you’ll get digital access to the book to read on your favorite device within seven days of your pre-order. That means you can start reading it months before the book is released to the public.

You’ll also get pre-order bonuses worth at least 10 times the cost of the book. You can check out the bonuses at rocketsciencebook.com.

Laura Vanderkam is the author of several time management and productivity books, including Juliet’s School of Possibilities, Off the Clock, I Know How She Does It, What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast, and 168 Hours. Her work has appeared in publications including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, and Fortune. 

If you’d like to keep in touch with Laura, you can check out her short daily podcast, Before Breakfast, to start your morning with productivity advice that will take your day from great to awesome.

In this episode Laura and I discuss:

• How Laura became interested in studying and writing about time management
• Why Laura focuses on weeks instead of days
• The first step you should take if you want to improve your own productivity
• What surprising insight Laura discovered about successful people’s schedules by reading their time diaries
• How anyone can create extra hours in their week
• How you can stretch out the good moments in life
• What Laura learned after her first book flopped and didn’t find its audience.

My book, Think Like a Rocket Scientist: Simple Strategies You Can Use to Make Giant Leaps in Work and Life, is now available for pre-order (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Indiebound).

I’ve been ecstatic about the early reviews. The book was named a “must read” by Susan Cain (NYT Bestselling Author of Quiet), “endlessly fascinating” by Daniel Pink (NYT Bestselling Author of Drive and A Whole New Mind), and “bursting with practical insights” by Adam Grant (NYT Bestselling Author of Originals).

If you pre-order the book, you’ll get digital access to the book to read on your favorite device within seven days of your pre-order. That means you can start reading it months before the book is released to the public.

You’ll also get pre-order bonuses worth at least 10 times the cost of the book. You can check out the bonuses at rocketsciencebook.com.

This is a short, solo episode of Famous Failures. Instead of doing an interview, I speak about what you should do when you make a mistake. The episode is based on a blog post I wrote a few months ago, which you can find here.

If you enjoyed this episode, you’d love my forthcoming book, Think Like a Rocket Scientist: Simple Strategies You Can Use to Make Giant Leaps in Work and Life. 

The book was named a “must read” by Susan Cain (NYT Bestselling Author of Quiet), “endlessly fascinating” by Daniel Pink (NYT Bestselling Author of Drive and A Whole New Mind), and “bursting with practical insights” by Adam Grant (NYT Bestselling Author of Originals).

If you pre-order the book, you’ll get digital access to the book to read on your favorite device within seven days of your pre-order. That means you can start reading it months before the book is released to the public.

You’ll also get pre-order bonuses worth at least 10 times the cost of the book. You can check out the bonuses at rocketsciencebook.com.

You can pre-order any edition of the book from any bookseller (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Indiebound). After you pre-order the book, please forward your receipt to [email protected], and your bonuses will land in your inbox.

Rene Denfeld is the author of the acclaimed novels The Child Finder, The Enchanted, and The Butterfly Girl. Her literary thrillers have earned glowing reviews from the New York Times Book Review, among other venues. Margaret Atwood, who is the renowned author of Handmaid’s Tale (among other books), has described Rene’s work as “astonishing,” and Rene’s latest novel, The Butterfly Girl, a “heartbreaking, finger-gnawing, yet ultimately hopeful novel.”

Rene was the Chief Investigator at a public defender’s office and has worked hundreds of cases, including death row exonerations. In addition to her advocacy work, Rene has been a foster adoptive parent for twenty years. She was awarded the Break The Silence Award in Washington, DC for her social justice work, and was named a 2017 hero of the year by the New York Times.

You can get Rene’s new book The Butterfly Girl at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Powell’s. 

In this episode Rene and I discuss:

• How living on the streets as a teenager inspired her latest novel
• What helped Rene overcome feelings of shame over her past trauma
• How she preserves the dignity of her fictional characters who survive trauma and abuse
• How a librarian and a broken typewriter steered her towards careers in social justice and writing
• The unexpected inspiration she found working with death row inmates
• Rene’s biggest challenge in writing stories inspired from her personal experience
• Why it’s never too late to start writing (Rene didn’t become an author until her 40s)
• What advice Rene has for older aspiring writers

My book, Think Like a Rocket Scientist: Simple Strategies You Can Use to Make Giant Leaps in Work and Life, is now available for pre-order (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Indiebound).

I’ve been ecstatic about the early reviews. The book was named a “must read” by Susan Cain (NYT Bestselling Author of Quiet), “endlessly fascinating” by Daniel Pink (NYT Bestselling Author of Drive and A Whole New Mind), and “bursting with practical insights” by Adam Grant (NYT Bestselling Author of Originals).

If you pre-order the book, you’ll get digital access to the book to read on your favorite device within seven days of your pre-order. That means you can start reading it months before the book is released to the public.

You’ll also get pre-order bonuses worth at least 10 times the cost of the book. You can check out the bonuses at rocketsciencebook.com.

This is a short, solo episode of Famous Failures. Instead of doing an interview, I go on a riff on why the popular “fail fast, fail often” mantra is misguided. I offer an alternative that produces better results and explain how you can use it to your advantage in your personal and professional life. 

The discussion is based in part on my forthcoming book, Think Like a Rocket Scientist: Simple Strategies You Can Use to Make Giant Leaps in Work and Life. 

The book was named a “must read” by Susan Cain (NYT Bestselling Author of Quiet), “endlessly fascinating” by Daniel Pink (NYT Bestselling Author of Drive and A Whole New Mind), and “bursting with practical insights” by Adam Grant (NYT Bestselling Author of Originals).

If you pre-order the book, you’ll get amazing bonuses that are worth 10x the cost of the book(s). What’s more, if you pre-order the book in any format, you can download and read the digital version NOW, before the book is released to the public. 

You can learn more about the book and the bonuses at this link.

Why am I running a pre-order campaign?

First, pre-order bonuses are my way of thanking you for supporting my writing.

Second, I’m donating 100% of my royalties (up to $10,000) from the pre-order sales to a non-profit called charity: water, which is on a mission to create a future where everyone has access to clean and safe drinking water.

My goal is to sponsor an entire water project, which will cost $10,000 and bring clean water to a community of roughly 300 people. By pre-ordering the book, you’ll help bring this goal to life.

Third, pre-orders carry tremendous weight in book promotion. Major bookstores use pre-order numbers to gauge public interest in the book. If the pre-order numbers are high, they’ll stock more copies of the book, which, in turn, means more readers will see it.

You can pre-order any edition of the book from any bookseller (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Indiebound). After you pre-order the book, please forward your receipt to [email protected], and your bonuses will land in your inbox.

Whitney Johnson is a leading business thinker and expert on disruptive innovation and personal disruption. She covers the framework for personal disruption in the critically-acclaimed book Disrupt Yourself: Putting the Power of Disruptive Innovation to Work. 

Originally an award-winning stock analyst, Whitney chose to leave her Wall Street career behind at the height of her career. This bold act of personal disruption and the following years of entrepreneurial exploration led to her new career as a business coach, writer and speaker. 

Whitney is the host of the popular Disrupt Yourself Podcast. You can gain special insights into her seven-point framework for personal disruption by listening to Disrupt Yourself episode #120, “Play to Your Distinctive Strengths” at https://whitneyjohnson.com/distinctive-strengths/.

In this episode Whitney and I discuss:

• How she went from secretary to award-winning Wall Street analyst
• Why taking a step backward was Whitney’s slingshot forward on Wall Street
• How disrupting yourself sets you up for greater success
• Why Lady Gaga is the perfect example of personal disruption
• The three factors that helped her develop the confidence to make big leaps
• The importance of grieving failure

Resources mentioned

Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail by Clayton Christensen

Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen by Donald Miller 

My book, Think Like a Rocket Scientist, is now available for pre-order (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Indiebound).

I’ve been ecstatic about the early reviews. The book was named a “must read” by Susan Cain (NYT Bestselling Author of Quiet), “endlessly fascinating” by Daniel Pink (NYT Bestselling Author of Drive and A Whole New Mind), and “bursting with practical insights” by Adam Grant (NYT Bestselling Author of Originals).

If you pre-order the book, you’ll get immediate digital access to read on your favorite device. That means you can start reading it NOW, months before the book is published.

You’ll also get pre-order bonuses worth at least 10 times the cost of the book. You can check out the bonuses at rocketsciencebook.com.

Why am I running a pre-order campaign?

First, pre-order bonuses are my way of thanking you for supporting my writing. 

Second, I’m donating 100% of my royalties (up to $10,000) from the pre-order sales to a non-profit called charity: water, which is on a mission to create a future where everyone has access to clean and safe drinking water. 

My goal is to sponsor an entire water project, which will cost $10,000 and bring clean water to a community of roughly 300 people. By pre-ordering the book, you’ll help bring this goal to life.

Third, pre-orders carry tremendous weight in book promotion. Major bookstores use pre-order numbers to gauge public interest in the book. If the pre-order numbers are high, they’ll stock more copies of the book, which, in turn, means more readers will see it.

You can pre-order any edition of the book from any bookseller (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Indiebound). After you pre-order the book, please forward your receipt to [email protected], and your bonuses will land in your inbox. 

In this special episode of Famous Failures, I read a never-before-released excerpt from my forthcoming book, Think Like a Rocket Scientist: Simple Strategies You Can Use to Make Giant Leaps in Work and Life.

If you pre-order the book, you’ll get amazing bonuses that are worth 10x the cost of the book(s). What’s more, if you pre-order the book in any format, you can download and read the digital version NOW, before the book is released to the public. Click here to learn more. 

I’ve been ecstatic about the early reviews of the book. Here are a few:

"When the stakes are high, the unknowns are threatening, and the problems seem insurmountable, you need a superhero — which means you need Ozan Varol. He’ll show you how to master the cognitive skills of a rocket scientist. And by the time you finish reading his endlessly fascinating book, your thinking will be bigger, better, and bolder."

— Daniel H. Pink, New York Times bestselling author of WHEN, DRIVE, and A WHOLE NEW MIND

“Thinking like a rocket scientist is not rocket science! Packed with witty writing, insightful advice, and invigorating stories, this must-read book will change the way you see the world—and empower you to change the world itself.” 

— Susan Cain, New York Times bestselling author of QUIET. 

“This is not just an engrossing read—it’s bursting with practical insights. Ozan Varol’s dazzling debut might change how you approach problems. Houston, this book has solutions.”

— Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of ORIGINALS and GIVE AND TAKE, and host of the TED podcast WorkLife

“The rocket scientists I know are technical, of course. But they are also among the biggest dreamers the world has ever seen. Ozan Varol has written a fascinating, practical, and mind-expanding book about how we can all benefit from thinking like a rocket scientist. This book will make you look at the world with a different lens and will help you make your own seemingly crazy moonshot a reality.” 

– Julian Guthrie, New York Times bestselling author of How to Make a Spaceship

Head over here to grab your copy.

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Don’t want to miss future episodes? Be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review on iTunes or Google Play.

As always, thanks for listening. 

Tim Urban is best known as the writer and illustrator behind the incredibly popular blog Wait But Why, which has garnered millions of unique page views and famous fans like Elon Musk. His deeply researched long-form posts on everything from artificial intelligence to procrastination buck the conventional wisdom that internet writing should be short or SEO optimized to be successful.

A former film composer and professional tutor, Tim has parlayed his conversational writing style into a sideline of speaking engagements. His 2016 TED talk on procrastination has been viewed more than 30 million times.

You can subscribe to the Wait But Why Newsletter at https://waitbutwhy.com

In this episode Tim and I discuss:

• Why he wrote a 90 page college thesis in only 72 hours
• Strategies for overcoming procrastination
• What motivated Tim to give up his music career to become a professional blogger
• How Tim developed his writing craft in the sandbox of blogging
• The value of experimentation, having fun, and drawing stick figures
• Why Tim ignores the ‘short and sweet’ blogging format and writes long, book-length posts
• What he learned from failing to take advantage of a big opportunity in Hollywood 
• What exciting trends in technologies and psychology may end up in future Wait But Why posts

And in this episode Tim also answers a couple questions from Inner Circle members:

“Where do you get ideas for your blog?”

“How do you pick a popular topic but avoid repeating someone else’s rants on the same issue?”

Resources mentioned:

Tim’s TED Talk: Inside the mind of a master procrastinator

Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life by Nir Eyal

The story of Odysseus and the Sirens is from the Odyssey by Homer

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Get your FREE copy of my e-book. Text OZAN to 345345 or navigate to weeklycontrarian.com to download a free copy of my e-book, The Contrarian Handbook: 8 Principles for Innovating Your Thinking. Along with your free e-book, you’ll get the Weekly Contrarian — a newsletter that challenges conventional wisdom and changes the way we look at the world (plus access to exclusive content for subscribers only).

Don’t want to miss future episodes? Be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review on iTunes or Google Play.

As always, thanks for listening. 

In 2012, eighteen-year-old soccer player Lindsey Horan defied conventional wisdom when she turned down a scholarship from soccer powerhouse University of North Carolina. UNC is almost a guaranteed path to the big leagues for talented and hardworking women, but Lindsey decided to skip a step and move halfway around the world to sign with Paris Saint-Germain. She was the first American woman to go pro directly out of high school.

Today Lindsey is a National Women’s Soccer League player with the Portland Thorns. She led her team to the championship in 2017 and was named the Most Valuable Player of the entire league for the 2018 season. She’s the heartbeat of the US Women’s National Team and played in her first World Cup in 2019. 

Follow Lindsey on Twitter at https://twitter.com/LindseyHoran, and on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/lindseyhoran10/.

In this episode Lindsey and I discuss:

• How she made the difficult decision to skip college and turn pro in France
• What it was like landing in France at the age of eighteen with no language or cultural compass
• How she overcame humiliation in the locker room to become the best player she could be
• Why chipped fingernails and short hair got players sidelined in France
• How she talks herself through tough times and failures
• How she supports her team on the field when things go sideways during a game
• How she bounced back from being benched for most of the 2016 Olympics
• Why taking risks on the field boosts her self-confidence and makes her a better player

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Get your FREE copy of my e-book. Text OZAN to 345345 or navigate to weeklycontrarian.com to download a free copy of my e-book, The Contrarian Handbook: 8 Principles for Innovating Your Thinking. Along with your free e-book, you’ll get the Weekly Contrarian — a newsletter that challenges conventional wisdom and changes the way we look at the world (plus access to exclusive content for subscribers only).

Don’t want to miss future episodes? Be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review on iTunes or Google Play.

As always, thanks for listening.