So a native of Istanbul, Turkey, my guest, ozen varoul grew up in a family of no english speakers.
He learned English as a second language and then moved to the United States himself at 17 to go to Cornell University and major in astrophysics.
And while he was there, he ended up serving on the operations team for the 2003 Mars Exploration Rovers project that sent two rovers, spirit and opportunity to Mars.
He built stuff that went to the red planet.
How cool is that?
And he wrote code that snaps photos of the martian surface.
And he was on track to build this powerhouse career in the world of scientists, a literal rocket scientist.
But leaving Cornell, Ozan pivoted and he ended up going to law school, graduating first in his class, earning the highest GPA in his law school's history.
Then he became a law professor, teaching at Lewis and Clark Law School in his twenties and becoming the youngest tenured professor.
And while teaching law, though, there was always this deeper driver, the rocket scientist.
And him was on a mission to share that scientific process that challenged everything and opened minds to possibility and helped cultivate a mindset to influence others to make giant leaps on earth.
He shared this philosophy in a really wonderful book, think like a rocket scientist.
Simple strategies you can use to make giant leaps in work, in life.
So excited to share this conversation with you.
I'm Jonathan Fields and this is good life project.
So you've been in Portland for a while right now, but originally from Istanbul, grew up there I guess in the eighties and nineties, which is really interesting time to be there as well.
It's a place I've never yet been and I'm always curious when I get to talk to somebody who's actually not just been there for a while, but grown up there.
Just what was your sense of spending your formative years there, especially at a time where there was so much transformation in the country?
Oh, for sure.
Istanbul is such an interesting, first of all, it's such a beautiful city.