And if you look back on your own life, chances are that the best, most exciting moments of your life were not carefully scripted and planned like they happened precisely because you leaned into the magic of uncertainty.
You leaned into the unknown, you took your nose off of the guidebook in a foreign country, and you leaned into the magic unfolding around you.
You decided to do something that you were not comfortable with, that you didn't know how this was going to pan out, but inner voice said that you should take this path, you should ask this person out on a date or you should apply for this job.
And you leaned into that and there was so much uncertainty and amazing things resulted.
So have you ever felt like you've got so much more potential inside of you, but yet kind of have no idea how to unlock it and share it with the world?
Well, if so, you're not alone.
In fact, this is an incredibly common experience.
And it's a question that today's guest, rocket scientist turned award winning professor and bestselling author Ozan Verrall, takes us into.
How can we unleash our hidden genius, that magical set of capabilities that lies within every person, and how do we even know what ours is?
How do we access it, let alone release it into the world?
So Ozan has this fascinating background.
A native of Istanbul, Turkey, Ozan moved to the United States by himself at 17 to attend Cornell University and major in astrophysics.
He ended up on the operations team for the 2003 Mars Exploration Rovers project that sent two rovers to Mars and Ozan then made this really interesting pivot and became a lawyer, graduating at the top of his class, and eventually went on to become a professor on a quest to help others make giant leaps right here on earth.
His work has over the years been featured everywhere from the Wall Street Journal to Newsweek, BBC Times, CNN, Washington Post and so many others.
So in this thought provoking conversation, we're diving into the art of embracing curiosity, letting go of our past and future and stepping into the unknown to awaken your genius, which, by the way, is also the name of his great new book, awaken your genius.
So we explore things like how the power of curiosity can lead to groundbreaking discoveries and help you overcome fear, the importance of looking where others don't, to find unique perspectives and uncover hidden gems, and the role of repetition in creating false confidence and the value of exploring different sources of information.
He shares a really fun story about Jimmy Breslin, a journalist who found success by stepping away from the norm.
And we also explore how ozen experimented with his own potential futures before finding his true calling and the importance of approaching life with the mindset of a curious scientist.
So excited to share this conversation with you as you explore awakening your own genius.
I'm Jonathan Fields, and this is good life project.