Sheena Iyengar on How to Think Bigger

Welcome to FOMO Sapiens, the podcast about entrepreneurial thinkers who don’t just follow the crowd, but instead take their own path to success in business and in life.

In this episode, Patrick is joined by Sheena Iyengar, a professor at Columbia Business School and bestselling author of “The Art of Choosing.”

Iyengar discusses her latest book, “Think Bigger: How to Innovate” which shares insights and advice from successful entrepreneurs on how to overcome challenges and build thriving businesses. Iyengar shares stories and examples from the entrepreneurs featured in her book, highlighting their strategies for success and the lessons they learned along the way. She emphasizes the importance of thinking creatively and taking calculated risks, as well as the value of resilience and adaptability in the face of failure.

Throughout the conversation, Iyengar and McGinnis discuss the role of decision-making in entrepreneurship, and how entrepreneurs can balance intuition and data to make informed choices. Iyengar also shares her own experiences as an entrepreneur and offers practical advice for those looking to start or grow a business.

This episode provides valuable insights and inspiration for entrepreneurs at all stages of their journey. Listeners will come away with a deeper understanding of the strategies and mindset needed to succeed in today’s competitive business landscape.

Meet our guest:

Sheena S. Iyengar is the S.T. Lee Professor of Business at the Columbia Business School. She is one of the world’s experts on choice and innovation. Iyengar is famously recognized for her “Jam Study,” which transformed the way we think about products offered in the marketplace and how we curate them for customers. In 2010, her book, The Art of Choosing, was ranked by the Financial Times, McKinsey, and Amazon as one of the Best Business Books of the Year. Her recorded TED Talks have received a collective 7 million views and she regularly appears in top tier media such as The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, The New Yorker, The Economist, Bloomberg Businessweek, CNBC, CNN, The BBC, and NPR. Her next book Think Bigger: How to Innovate, which teaches the science and six steps behind her innovation method for problem-solving, was published on April 11th, 2023.

The Asian American Business Development Center ranked her as one of 2022’s Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business. She also regularly appears on the Thinkers50 list of the Most Influential Business Thinkers. In 2012, she was recognized by Poets and Quants as one of the Best Business School Professors for her work merging academia with practice. In 2002, she was the only social scientist to receive the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from the Office of the President.

Iyengar holds a dual degree from the University of Pennsylvania, with a BS in Economics from the Wharton School and a BA in psychology from the College of Arts and Sciences. She received her PhD from Stanford University. In her personal life, as a blind woman, Iyengar intuitively used Think Bigger to find her calling and strives to inspire others to do the same.