This guest post comes from Ozan Varol, one of my favorite rocket scientists. It’s excerpted from his new book, “Awaken Your Genius,” which is sure to be on my year-end best books list!

Don’t just generate new ideas. Iterate your old ones, too. According to legendary creators James Clear and Mr. Beast, iteration is sometimes even more important than a new idea.

One of the great secrets to effective creativity is, when you're finding creative output hard to come by, shift your attention to your inputs. The outputs of our thinking are largely a function of the inputs we seek.

Ownership is an exceptional innovation diagnostic. Who came up with the good idea? You might be surprised to see what an exceptional team does (and doesn’t) remember…

Some problems can be hard to see from different perspectives. William Hardaway, a design leader in higher education recommends taking a light-hearted approach to exposing unexplored angles.

Spectacular entrepreneurs craft clever experiments. And a robust experimentation practice demands a rigorous ideation ritual. At Stanford, this is how folks build the muscle.

World-class creators like Jon Acuff literally count their ideas. It’s one of the simplest ways to measure your creative capacity, and whether it’s growing.

The surprising secret to YouTube sensation Mr. Beast’s rise to prominence? Gathering likeminded learners to exponentially reduce the ramp of a new pursuit. Such folks are lunatics.

For all the ink that’s been spilled on overcoming creative blocks, we often neglect an important reality: getting stuck is essential to breaking through! Let’s stop to appreciate the feeling…

A good hypothesis is one of the most valuable assets in the scientific world. And they’re getting harder to come by. Luckily, this is where design thinking shines.

Leaders at Stanford and Pixar have proven that one of the most powerful ways to accelerate the quality of our ideas is to actively seek and embrace critique.

A common thread of breakthroughs is that they occur in “accidental” or unexpected ways. What if, instead of dismissing the accidental elements as irrelevant, we started deliberately deploying them?

What do Kobe Bryant, Jerry Seinfeld, Michael Phelps, and the digital artist Beeple have in common? They all made sacrifices to do something special.

Wildly inventive individuals have a habit of gathering conceptual pieces before they know exactly what they’re going to do with them. The more legos you collect, the more ideas you can make.

David Ogilvy attributed difficulties with original thinking to what he dubbed “the tyranny of reason.” Here are a few superrational escape techniques...

How did I have the boldness to approach a living legend of innovation as a total stranger? I was inspired by one of my own students, and followed suit.

Bossy Cosmetics Founder and CEO Aishetu Dozie shares an insight with profound implications for finding purpose in work.

Take stock of the last time you had a good idea. How you talk about it, both to yourself and to others, matters. If you don’t chalk it up to “creativity,” then you’re unlikely call on creativity when you need it.

I’ll never forget the first time I caught a glimpse of my own dormant creative potential. It’s like a whole new world of possibility opened up to me. Ever since then, it’s a gift I’ve wanted to give others.

Leverage is one of the most fundamental mechanisms of value creation, yet folks look far enough beyond the balance sheet to reap its full rewards. Here’s how to bring leverage into daily life.