Think Like a Rocket Scientist: Simple Strategies You Can Use to Make Giant Leaps in Work and Life

by Ozan Varol

Many of us refrain from moonshots because we assume we’re not cut out for them. We believe the kind of people who can fly high have better wings impervious to melting. Michelle Obama dispelled this myth in a 2018 interview. “I have been at probably every powerful table that you can think of,” she explained, “I have worked at nonprofits, I have been at foundations, I have worked in corporations, served on corporate boards, I have been at G-summits, I have sat in at the UN: They are not that smart.”22 They are not that smart. They just know what most of us have never learned: There’s far less competition for antelopes. Everyone else is busy chasing mice in the same crowded, rapidly shrinking territory. This means you can’t afford not to take moonshots. If you wait too long—if you keep chasing ever-smaller business margins at ever-greater cost—someone else will take the moonshot that puts you out of a job or makes your business obsolete.