Famous Failures
Ozan Varol
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Top 10 Famous Failures Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Famous Failures episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Famous Failures for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Famous Failures episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
04/24/18 • 19 min
Nir Eyal writes, consults, and teaches about the intersection of psychology, technology, and business. He has been nicknamed “The Prophet of Habit-Forming Technology” by M.I.T. Technology Review and named one of LinkedIn’s “Top 10 Voices in Technology” for two years running.
Nir founded two tech companies since 2003 and has taught at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford. He is the author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller, Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products. He is also an active investor in habit-forming technologies.
In addition to blogging at NirAndFar.com, Nir’s writing has been featured in The Harvard Business Review, TechCrunch, and Psychology Today.
In the interview, Nir shares his failures from childhood to entrepreneurship and beyond. He also gives one of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever heard on coping with failure: View everything as prom. That advice requires more context, so please listen to the interview to find out more.
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Get your FREE copy of my e-book. Text OZAN to 345345 or navigate to weeklycontrarian.com to download a free copy of my e-book, The Contrarian Handbook: 8 Principles for Innovating Your Thinking. Along with your free e-book, you’ll get the Weekly Contrarian — a newsletter that challenges conventional wisdom and changes the way we look at the world (plus access to exclusive content for subscribers only).
Don’t want to miss future episodes? Be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review on iTunes or Google Play.
As always, thanks for listening.
Hank Weisinger: A World-Renowned Psychologist and Pioneer in the Field of Pressure Management
Famous Failures
01/30/18 • 54 min
HENDRIE WEISINGER, Ph.D.
A world-renowned psychologist and pioneer in the field of pressure management. He’s a two-time New York Times bestselling author. He has consulted with and developed programs for dozens of Fortune 500 companies and government agencies, and has taught in Executive Education and Executive MBA programs at Wharton, UCLA, NYU, Cornell, Penn State, and MIT. He’s appeared on the Today Show, Oprah, and in The New York Times Sunday Business Section.
His latest book is Performing Under Pressure: The Science Of Doing Your Best When It Matters Most. The book introduces the concept of pressure management, offering empirically tested short-term and long-term solutions to help us overcome the debilitating effects of pressure.
To sign up for Dr. Weisinger’s online course on pressure management for 50% off, please use the discount code pressureozan.
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Get your FREE copy of my e-book. Text OZAN to 345345 or navigate to weeklycontrarian.com to download a free copy of my e-book, The Contrarian Handbook: 8 Principles for Innovating Your Thinking. Along with your free e-book, you’ll get the Weekly Contrarian — a newsletter that challenges conventional wisdom and changes the way we look at the world (plus access to exclusive content for subscribers only).
Don’t want to miss future episodes? Be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review on iTunes or Google Play.
As always, thanks for listening.
05/21/19 • 38 min
SUSAN CAIN is the author of Quiet: The Secret Strengths of Introverts, and Quiet: The Power of Introverts in A World That Can’t Stop Talking, which has been translated into 40 languages, is in its seventh year on the New York Times best seller list, and was named the #1 best book of the year by Fast Company magazine, which also named Susan one of its Most Creative People in Business. Susan’s writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, and many other publications. Her record-smashing TED talk has been viewed over 20 million times and was named by Bill Gates one of his all-time favorite talks.
You can join Susan’s newsletter at this link, and follow her on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
In the interview, Susan and I discuss:
- Why Susan left a high-powered career as a Wall Street attorney to become a writer
- What advice she has for others who are contemplating a career transition
- How she decided to write a book about introversion
- Why all literary agents, except one, Susan approached turned down her book idea
- What Susan did after her editor told her that her book was terrible and advised her to start over from scratch
- How Susan copes with the demands of publicity as an introvert
- How introverts can survive and thrive in networking events and conferences
- How to move beyond small talk to deeper conversation
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Get your FREE copy of my e-book. Text OZAN to 345345 or navigate to weeklycontrarian.com to download a free copy of my e-book, The Contrarian Handbook: 8 Principles for Innovating Your Thinking. Along with your free e-book, you’ll get the Weekly Contrarian — a newsletter that challenges conventional wisdom and changes the way we look at the world (plus access to exclusive content for subscribers only).
Don’t want to miss future episodes? Be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review on iTunes or Google Play.
As always, thanks for listening.
12/18/18 • 47 min
Matilda Ho is the founder of Yimishiji, one of China's first online farmers markets to bring organic and local produce to families. She’s also the founder and managing director of Bits x Bites, China’s first accelerator and venture capital fund that invests in purpose-driven startups to shape the future of food.
Before becoming an entrepreneur, Matilda filled leadership roles at IDEO and BCG (The Boston Consulting Group) in both Shanghai and Washington DC. She holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. She currently serves as an advisor on the board of Shinho, China’s first and largest organic condiment company.
Matilda and I discuss:
- What Matilda learned from working as Taiwan’s first female dove magician
- Why she enjoys jumping into danger and uncertainty
- How she decided to work on organic food in China, a country that’s had an epidemic of food safety issues
- Why finding an early investor for her company was a blessing and a curse
- The questions that she likes to ask in interviewing employees and startups
- How she creates an environment in her companies for encouraging her employees to share their mistakes and failures
- Why being a CEO is a lonely job, and the strategies that Matilda uses to cope with that challenge
Resources mentioned:
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Get your FREE copy of my e-book. Text OZAN to 345345 or navigate to weeklycontrarian.com to download a free copy of my e-book, The Contrarian Handbook: 8 Principles for Innovating Your Thinking. Along with your free e-book, you’ll get the Weekly Contrarian — a newsletter that challenges conventional wisdom and changes the way we look at the world (plus access to exclusive content for subscribers only).
Don’t want to miss future episodes? Be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review on iTunes or Google Play.
As always, thanks for listening.
Verne Harnish: Failures In Scaling Up
Famous Failures
03/21/18 • 36 min
This week's guest on Famous Failures is Verne Harnish. Verne is the founder of the world renowned Entrepreneurs' Organization, which has over 12,000 members worldwide. For 15 years he chaired the Entrepreneurs' Organization’s premier CEO program which is called the Birthing of Giants held at MIT. He is the Founder and CEO of Gazelles which is a global executive education and coaching company with over 210 partners on six continents. He has spent the past three decades helping companies scale up. He is the author of several bestselling books including Mastering the Rockefeller Habits, which has been translated into nine languages. Along with the editors a Fortune, he authored The Great Business Decisions of All Times. His latest book is called Scaling Up, which has won 7 major international book awards, including the prestigious 2015 International Book Award for Best General Business Book. My conversation with Verne spans a wide range of topics. We begin with Verne's previous life as a magician and discuss what he learned from that experience. We will also find out how Verne lost $1 million overnight and almost went bankrupt. He’ll share with you the strategies that he used to bounce back from that failure. He’ll also share with you his recommendations for books that every business owner and aspiring entrepreneur should read. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Verne.
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Get your FREE copy of my e-book. Text OZAN to 345345 or navigate to weeklycontrarian.com to download a free copy of my e-book, The Contrarian Handbook: 8 Principles for Innovating Your Thinking. Along with your free e-book, you’ll get the Weekly Contrarian — a newsletter that challenges conventional wisdom and changes the way we look at the world (plus access to exclusive content for subscribers only).
Don’t want to miss future episodes? Be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review on iTunes or Google Play.
As always, thanks for listening.
08/14/18 • 38 min
Caroline Webb (Facebook and Twitter) is the CEO of Sevenshift, a firm that shows people how to use insights from behavioral science to improve their working life. Her book on that topic, How To Have A Good Day, was published in 16 languages and more than 60 countries. The book was hailed as one of the "top must-read business books of 2016" by both Inc. and Forbes and described by Fortune as one of their top "self-improvement through data" books.
Caroline’s work has been widely featured in media outlets, including: The Financial Times, Forbes, The New York Times, The Washington Post, BBC Radio, The Economist, WIRED, Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, and many others around the world.
To learn more about Caroline and her work, please go to howtohaveagoodday.com. You’ll find a list of free resources as well as information on how you can sign up for workshops designed to help you be your best at the office and beyond.
In the interview, Caroline shares her diverse career path and why the quality of her day-to-day experience didn’t necessarily improve as she moved up the career ladder; how she decided to write a book on improving our professional lives; why focusing too narrowly on long-term career goals can backfire; why she sings Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love” before client workshops; the strategies that she uses to teach corporate leaders how to build resilience in the face of failure; and how she unintentionally ended up in a professional dance audition that failed spectacularly and what she learned from it.
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Get your FREE copy of my e-book. Text OZAN to 345345 or navigate to weeklycontrarian.com to download a free copy of my e-book, The Contrarian Handbook: 8 Principles for Innovating Your Thinking. Along with your free e-book, you’ll get the Weekly Contrarian — a newsletter that challenges conventional wisdom and changes the way we look at the world (plus access to exclusive content for subscribers only).
Don’t want to miss future episodes? Be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review on iTunes or Google Play.
As always, thanks for listening.
03/08/18 • 18 min
Barbara Oakley defied the odds (and her early educators) by overcoming perceived weaknesses in math and science to become a professor of engineering at Oakland University. She’s also the Ramón y Cajal Distinguished Scholar of Global Digital Learning at McMaster University, where she teaches two massive open online courses (MOOCs)—Learning How to Learn and Mindshift—with esteemed neuroscientist, Terrence Sejnowski. Oakley’s most recently published work, Mindshift, discusses overcoming learning “handicaps”—including the impostor syndrome or advancing age—by the simple, yet powerful, act of persistence.
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Get your FREE copy of my e-book. Text OZAN to 345345 or navigate to weeklycontrarian.com to download a free copy of my e-book, The Contrarian Handbook: 8 Principles for Innovating Your Thinking. Along with your free e-book, you’ll get the Weekly Contrarian — a newsletter that challenges conventional wisdom and changes the way we look at the world (plus access to exclusive content for subscribers only).
Don’t want to miss future episodes? Be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review on iTunes or Google Play.
As always, thanks for listening.
Case Lawrence: Surviving the 2008 Recession to Creating a World Wide Brand with Over 300 Locations
Famous Failures
05/08/18 • 38 min
Case Lawrence went from the brink of bankruptcy to found and lead a global trampoline park company with over 300 locations in just 7 years. As a commercial real estate developer in California, Case was decimated by the Great Recession of 2008. While trying to pull the pieces of his life back together, he visited a trampoline park in San Francisco with his sons, which inspired him to launch CircusTrix.
CircusTrix provides extreme indoor recreational experiences by featuring trampolines, foam pits, ninja warrior courses; and trick and stunt attractions of all varieties. CircusTrix is now the largest owner, operator and franchisor of trampoline parks in the world.
In the episode, Case discusses how he saved his commercial real estate company from the brink of bankruptcy in 2008; the strategies he used during that dark time period to cope with failure; how he expanded CircusTrix from its humble beginnings to a global powerhouse in just seven years; and why he believes early success can be a curse rather than a blessing.
You can find out more about CircusTrix at this link.
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Get your FREE copy of my e-book. Text OZAN to 345345 or navigate to weeklycontrarian.com to download a free copy of my e-book, The Contrarian Handbook: 8 Principles for Innovating Your Thinking. Along with your free e-book, you’ll get the Weekly Contrarian — a newsletter that challenges conventional wisdom and changes the way we look at the world (plus access to exclusive content for subscribers only).
Don’t want to miss future episodes? Be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review on iTunes or Google Play.
As always, thanks for listening.
02/08/18 • 21 min
Isaac Lidsky is an entrepreneur, bestselling author, and coveted speaker. But that brief description doesn’t do justice to his remarkable resume.
Lidsky was a child television star, appearing as series regular “Weasel” on NBC’s “Saved By The Bell: The New Class.” Lidsky left his acting career and went on to graduate from Harvard at 19 with an honors degree in mathematics and computer science. He returned to Harvard to study law and became the only blind person to clerk on the U.S. Supreme Court (for Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg). He later took charge of a struggling construction company and grew it tenfold.
Lidsky was born with Retinitis Pigmentosa, a rare degenerative disease of the retina. From age 12 to 25, he slowly lost his sight. Using insights from his experiences, he authored the New York Times bestseller, Eyes Wide Open: Overcoming Obstacles and Recognizing Opportunities in a World That Can’t See Clearly. He founded a nonprofit organization to fund the development of treatments for blinding diseases and within five years grew it to a dozen cities nationwide.
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Get your FREE copy of my e-book. Text OZAN to 345345 or navigate to weeklycontrarian.com to download a free copy of my e-book, The Contrarian Handbook: 8 Principles for Innovating Your Thinking. Along with your free e-book, you’ll get the Weekly Contrarian — a newsletter that challenges conventional wisdom and changes the way we look at the world (plus access to exclusive content for subscribers only).
Don’t want to miss future episodes? Be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review on iTunes or Google Play.
As always, thanks for listening.
Dr. Tasha Eurich on Overcoming Imposter Syndrome & Using Self-Awareness to Cope with Failure
Famous Failures
06/05/18 • 37 min
Dr. Tasha Eurich is an organizational psychologist, researcher, and New York Times best-selling author. Over her 15 year career, she’s helped thousands of professionals—from Fortune 500 executives to early stage entrepreneurs—improve their self-awareness and success. She has been named a “Top 100 Thought Leader” by Trust Across America and a “Leader to Watch” by the American Management Association. Her TedX talk has been viewed more than one million times.
Tasha’s newest book, Insight, delves into the connection between our self-awareness, what she calls the meta-skill of the twenty-first century, and our performance and success, both in and out of the workplace.
Tasha has a SPECIAL OFFER for the listeners of Famous Failures. If you place an order for Insight by June 14, 2018, Tasha will send you bonus materials for the book that includes cliff notes as well as a toolkit for business leaders to apply the concepts from the book. To receive the bonus materials, please send the receipt for your purchase to [email protected].
In the episode, we discuss Tasha’s most valuable failures and what she learned from them, how to overcome the imposter syndrome, why self-awareness can help you cope with failure, and why authors shouldn’t read their Amazon reviews.
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Get your FREE copy of my e-book. Text OZAN to 345345 or navigate to weeklycontrarian.com to download a free copy of my e-book, The Contrarian Handbook: 8 Principles for Innovating Your Thinking. Along with your free e-book, you’ll get the Weekly Contrarian — a newsletter that challenges conventional wisdom and changes the way we look at the world (plus access to exclusive content for subscribers only).
Don’t want to miss future episodes? Be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review on iTunes or Google Play.
As always, thanks for listening.
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FAQ
How many episodes does Famous Failures have?
Famous Failures currently has 70 episodes available.
What topics does Famous Failures cover?
The podcast is about Podcasts and Business.
What is the most popular episode on Famous Failures?
The episode title 'Derek Sivers on What It Means to Fail' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on Famous Failures?
The average episode length on Famous Failures is 34 minutes.
How often are episodes of Famous Failures released?
Episodes of Famous Failures are typically released every 14 days.
When was the first episode of Famous Failures?
The first episode of Famous Failures was released on Jan 30, 2018.
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