Detailed Summary

The book Think like a Rocket Scientist is written by Ozan Varol, a rocket scientist. He was a former member of the 2003 Mars Exploration Rovers.

In his book, Varol teaches you to be passionate about your dreams. His idea of achieving goals is to be creative and think differently. He shared his life story from when he was a seven-year-old kid. He got his first LEGO set and tried building it but was not able to do it. Then he started reading instructions and tried building them through those instructions.

Finally, he solved the problem and built the LEGO set. Through this LEGO set, he got inspired by the process of problem-solving. He liked how he thought critically about building the LEGO set and successfully completed it.

Since then, he has started using critical thinking and problem-solving methods in his daily life. Even when he became a rocket scientist, he used them and realized they were important to success.

Think like a Rocket Scientist Summary – Key Points

What are your thoughts on getting success in every walk of your life? Below is the main food for thoughts for those who want to be successful by solving their problems through creativity and innovative ideas.

Be creative, Be Unique

The author tells us that if you want to become successful and want to make a difference in the World, trust your creativity. Don’t be an average person, be extraordinary.

Extraordinary people never follow the crowd. They make their own path and follow it. People who follow what everyone is doing will never be able to create something unique on their own.

The author shares Elon Musk’s journey of creating SpaceX. Initially, he thought he could not afford to create SpaceX, which required $20 million. He got really demotivated. But then he thought he could make it himself. He started working on it and manufactured everything himself without spending any money. He was able to create a rocket himself.

Elon Musk: “If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.”

This teaches us that we can accomplish our goals by just thinking differently and trusting the process. Nothing can stop us from reaching our goals when we trust our skills.

Focus on your skills and be passionate

In his book Thinks like a Rocket Scientist, the author shares his story of how passionately he wanted to go to space and become an astronaut.

Varol says that one day he was randomly scrolling through a Reddit ad and saw that NASA was accepting applications for astronauts. He randomly applied for it, considering that he was qualified for it. Nobody believed in him when he told them about it. They laughed it away.

He then accepted the fact that he just wanted to go to space but was not ready to face the challenges and was not ready for the hard astronaut training.

So, he should first train himself for that. Here he is giving a lesson that trains you and makes you eligible for that particular position. But this doesn’t mean you should stop trying.

“Safe answers and solutions do not change the world. Brains are exercised and pushed better under unfamiliar and irregular stimuli. Discomfort is good.”

Learn from your failures

The writer says that you learn from your mistakes and failures not only when you are failing but also when you are doing well.  Failure is a part of success. All you have to make sure of is to learn from those mistakes and never give up.

To advocate this statement, the writer gives us the example of James Dyson, who failed 5,126 times but never stopped trying. And after thousands of failed attempts, he finally perfected his innovative bagless vacuum.

The journey of James Dyson is inspiring enough to try hard and never get demotivated by your failures. Failures will eventually lead you to your dreams.

Who would I recommend the Think like a Rocket Scientist Summary to?

It is highly recommended to youngsters who are demotivated by their failures and need consistency. Also, people who think out of the box and want to do something innovative should read it. It will inspire them.