What's Next Is Now

The renowned global thought leader and Google's first Chief Innovation Evangelist introduces a forward-thinking mindstate that will help you navigate ambiguity and uncertainty with intention, transform problems and challenges into profound opportunities, and create exactly the future you want to see. What if you could choose your future? When we're kids, the future is exciting to imagine. Then we grow up and soon the events and circumstances of our lives overwhelm us and before we know it, we're afraid of tomorrow, waiting to see what the future drops on us instead of chasing after the future we want to have. Rather than bracing for what happens next, Dr. Frederik G. Pferdt argues that you can be making what happens next. You can respond to unexpected challenges—big and small—by turning them into opportunities with a “future-ready mindstate”: using optimism, openness, curiosity, experimentation, empathy, and what Dr. Pferdt calls our Dimension X—the unique lens through which each of us sees the world not as it is, but as we are. Both inspirational and actionable, What's Next Is Now engages your personal sense of discovery, providing dozens of thoughtful exercises and illustrations, real-world practices, and provocative insights from people who have adopted a future-ready mindstate to craft exceptional futures for themselves. Now, let What's Next Is Now help you build your remarkable future.

As Google's first Chief Innovation Evangelist, Dr. Frederik G. Pferdt shaped one of the most fabled creative cultures in the world. He founded Google's Innovation Lab, where he trained tens of thousands of Googlers to develop and prototype cutting-edge ideas and taught ground-breaking classes on innovation and creativity at Stanford University for more than a decade. He has also worked with dozens of international government agencies, organizations, and businesses ranging from the United Nations to NASA to the NBA. His work has been highlighted in Fast Company, Harvard Business Manager, Der Spiegel, and BBC news, among many other media outlets. Born in Germany, he lives with his family in Santa Cruz, California.