Ozan Varol Offers The Contrarian Mindset That Breeds Innovation

<p>Ozan Varol shares how thinking like a rocket scientist can unlock business innovations that most people would not believe are possible. Discover the lessons and ideas that allowed NASA to put a man on the moon and how to apply them to business development, the subtle insight that led to the creation of Netflix, and why questioning your assumptions is the secret to innovation and long term success.</p> <p> </p> <p>Mo asks Ozan Varol: How can we take Ozan’s content and become better skilled at business development?</p> <ul> <li>Ozan opened his book with the story of how John F. Kennedy pledged a literal moonshot despite the lack of technology at the time that could make it possible. Ozan wrote the book to show that it wasn’t just the technology that made putting a man on the moon possible, it was the framework of thinking that kicked everything off.</li> <li>The big takeaway from what NASA was able to accomplish is the combination of idealism and pragmatism. Dreaming big and then working backward from that dream and figuring out what needs to happen to get there, then methodically attacking each problem along the roadmap.</li> <li>Sometimes a challenge can galvanize your entire team to make your goal into a reality.</li> <li>Reasoning from first principles is a powerful way of reimagining and reframing what is possible. It’s a method of breaking a problem down and questioning your assumptions, and letting go of everything except for what is essential.</li> <li>One assumption from rocket science that didn’t change until recently was the idea that rockets couldn’t be reused. SpaceX and Blue Origin have used first principles thinking to reimagine what’s possible and it’s because someone was willing to step back and question the accepted wisdom of the time.</li> <li>Hack through your business assumptions. You owe to yourself and your clients to create a better vision that allows you to serve them even more.</li> <li>It’s important to ask yourself whether you own your assumptions or do your assumptions own you? Is it