Awaken Your Genius: Escape Conformity, Ignite Creativity, and Become Extraordinary

A WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER 

Unlock your originality and unleash your unique talents with this simple guide from the acclaimed author of Think Like a Rocket Scientist.   

We say some people march to the beat of a different drummer. But implicit in this cliché is that the rest of us march to the same beat. We sleepwalk through life, find ourselves on well-worn paths that were never ours to walk, and become a silent extra in someone else’s story. Extraordinary people carve their own paths as leaders and creators. They think and act with genuine independence. They stand out from the crowd because they embody their own shape and color. We call these people geniuses—as if they’re another breed. But genius isn’t for a special few. It can be cultivated.

Awaken Your Genius will show you how. You’ll learn:

• A simple practice the best thinkers use to generate original insights
• The one question you can ask to identify hidden time-sucks that clutter your brain and create overwhelm
• Why you’ll never feel “on top of everything” (and what to do about it)
• The surprising strategy that the writers of The Office used to boost their creativity (it’s weird ... but it works!)
• Why comparing yourself to others is stealing your joy (and how to stop doing it once and for all)
• How to promote yourself (without selling your soul)
• And much more!

Overall, you'll learn how to discard what no longer serves you and discover your first principles—the qualities that make up your genius. You’ll be equipped to escape your intellectual prisons and generate original insights from your own depths. You’ll discover how to look where others don’t look and see what others don’t see. You’ll give birth to your genius, the universe-denter you were meant to be.

Ozan Varol is a rocket scientist turned award-winning professor and bestselling author. A native of Istanbul, Turkey, Ozan moved to the United States by himself at 17 to attend Cornell University and major in astrophysics. While there, he served on the operations team for the 2003 Mars Exploration Rovers project that sent two rovers to Mars. Ozan then pivoted and became a law professor to influence others to make giant leaps on Earth. His work has been featured in various domestic and foreign media, including the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, BBC, TIME, CNN, and the Washington Post. You can follow him at ozanvarol.com.