What do you think?
Rate this book
Spiral: A Catalyst for Innovation and Expansion
Discover a new creative framework to help you transform your biggest ideas from imagination to reality, fusing the practicality of engineering design methodology with the magic of alchemy.
Spiral is an epic weaving of threads from engineering, design thinking, spirituality, business, and physics that will empower you as both a business builder and as a human. Rather than a step-by-step process for success that can feel like fighting the tide, this book acts as a guide to building your business on your own terms, in harmony with your own natural rhythms.
Based on her personal experience as a spacecraft systems architect, a serial entrepreneur, and a business strategy coach, Amy Simpkins offers simple-yet-powerful tools to approach the creative process as a whole person. Whether you are creating disruptively innovative solutions, a world-changing business, or a life that lights you up, Spiral helps you integrate all of the random, varied parts of yourself so that you are free to shine your brightest.
Spiral is an epic weaving of threads from engineering, design thinking, spirituality, business, and physics that will empower you as both a business builder and as a human. Rather than a step-by-step process for success that can feel like fighting the tide, this book acts as a guide to building your business on your own terms, in harmony with your own natural rhythms.
Based on her personal experience as a spacecraft systems architect, a serial entrepreneur, and a business strategy coach, Amy Simpkins offers simple-yet-powerful tools to approach the creative process as a whole person. Whether you are creating disruptively innovative solutions, a world-changing business, or a life that lights you up, Spiral helps you integrate all of the random, varied parts of yourself so that you are free to shine your brightest.
272 pages, Paperback
Published September 5, 2018
10 people are currently reading
22 people want to read
About the author
Amy Simpkins
1 book4 followersAmy Simpkins has an engineer’s brain and a poet’s heart. Her life’s work has been centered around the integration of seemingly unrelated things and the subsequent solution of wickedly hard problems.
Ms. Simpkins is a speaker, author, and thought leader in innovation. She facilitates massive leaps forward by helping individuals and organizations with big ideas make connections they’ve been missing. She believes that innovation is for everyone and holds the key to both personal fulfillment and lasting global change. She has been helping innovators implement their ideas since 2013.
Ms. Simpkins is also CEO of the renewable energy startup muGrid Analytics. muGrid solves problems at the edge of energy technology and economics using math and modeling, and is dedicated to creating a sustainable energy future for the planet, one project at a time. As a young, female executive in the tech world, she puts her theories about disruptive innovation and bringing your whole self to work into practice every single day.
Previously, Ms. Simpkins designed, integrated, and operated spacecraft at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company. During her 10-year tenure as an aspiring Spacecraft Systems Architect, she worked on diverse programs such as Juno, Stardust-NExT, Orion, and Space Radar, as well as spent time in dynamic idea incubation groups for new and exciting aerospace innovation.
Ms. Simpkins holds an SB in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MS in Astronautical Engineering from the University of Southern California. She is a messy chef, a world traveler, a taekwondo orange belt, a red tent facilitator, a homeschooling mom of three, and a tough cookie in the Colorado backcountry.
Ms. Simpkins is a speaker, author, and thought leader in innovation. She facilitates massive leaps forward by helping individuals and organizations with big ideas make connections they’ve been missing. She believes that innovation is for everyone and holds the key to both personal fulfillment and lasting global change. She has been helping innovators implement their ideas since 2013.
Ms. Simpkins is also CEO of the renewable energy startup muGrid Analytics. muGrid solves problems at the edge of energy technology and economics using math and modeling, and is dedicated to creating a sustainable energy future for the planet, one project at a time. As a young, female executive in the tech world, she puts her theories about disruptive innovation and bringing your whole self to work into practice every single day.
Previously, Ms. Simpkins designed, integrated, and operated spacecraft at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company. During her 10-year tenure as an aspiring Spacecraft Systems Architect, she worked on diverse programs such as Juno, Stardust-NExT, Orion, and Space Radar, as well as spent time in dynamic idea incubation groups for new and exciting aerospace innovation.
Ms. Simpkins holds an SB in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MS in Astronautical Engineering from the University of Southern California. She is a messy chef, a world traveler, a taekwondo orange belt, a red tent facilitator, a homeschooling mom of three, and a tough cookie in the Colorado backcountry.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 17, 2018
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.
Author Amy Simpkins uses her years of experience to bring a totally unique and creative approach to business in her novel Spiral: A Catalyst for Innovation and Expansion. Here is the synopsis.
The Synopsis
Discover a new creative framework to help you transform your biggest ideas from imagination to reality, fusing the practicality of engineering design methodology with the magic of alchemy.
Spiral is an epic weaving of threads from engineering, design thinking, spirituality, business, and physics that will empower you as both a business builder and as a human. Rather than a step-by-step process for success that can feel like fighting the tide, this book acts as a guide to building your business on your own terms, in harmony with your own natural rhythms.
Based on her personal experience as a spacecraft systems architect, a serial entrepreneur, and a business strategy coach, Amy Simpkins offers simple-yet-powerful tools to approach the creative process as a whole person. Whether you are creating disruptively innovative solutions, a world-changing business, or a life that lights you up, Spiral helps you integrate all of the random, varied parts of yourself so that you are free to shine your brightest.
The Review
This was one of the more unique business style books I’d read. It was fantastic to see an author who seems to truly care about the reader and isn’t focused on selling their services necessarily, but in promoting self-confidence and changing a person’s perception of their worth and the validity of their ideas.
The creative way the author blends the spiritual side of everyday life with the business concept itself was a truly one of a kind method that I believe could help struggling enterpenuers, creatives and business individuals overall. The concept of the various “Spirals” and incorporating these stages or phases into your business model was an inspired choice, and will help the reader better understand how to move forward with their business ideas overall.
The Verdict
Overall this is a must read novel for anyone interested in business and seeking new and creative ways of starting your own business. If you’ve been struggling with the confidence needed to take a leap of faith and start that business you always wanted to start, or wanted to find an approach to business that was less cut-throat and more spiritual, then this novel is for you. Be sure to grab your copy of Amy Simpkins novel “Spiral: A Catalyst for Innovation and Expansion” today!
Author Amy Simpkins uses her years of experience to bring a totally unique and creative approach to business in her novel Spiral: A Catalyst for Innovation and Expansion. Here is the synopsis.
The Synopsis
Discover a new creative framework to help you transform your biggest ideas from imagination to reality, fusing the practicality of engineering design methodology with the magic of alchemy.
Spiral is an epic weaving of threads from engineering, design thinking, spirituality, business, and physics that will empower you as both a business builder and as a human. Rather than a step-by-step process for success that can feel like fighting the tide, this book acts as a guide to building your business on your own terms, in harmony with your own natural rhythms.
Based on her personal experience as a spacecraft systems architect, a serial entrepreneur, and a business strategy coach, Amy Simpkins offers simple-yet-powerful tools to approach the creative process as a whole person. Whether you are creating disruptively innovative solutions, a world-changing business, or a life that lights you up, Spiral helps you integrate all of the random, varied parts of yourself so that you are free to shine your brightest.
The Review
This was one of the more unique business style books I’d read. It was fantastic to see an author who seems to truly care about the reader and isn’t focused on selling their services necessarily, but in promoting self-confidence and changing a person’s perception of their worth and the validity of their ideas.
The creative way the author blends the spiritual side of everyday life with the business concept itself was a truly one of a kind method that I believe could help struggling enterpenuers, creatives and business individuals overall. The concept of the various “Spirals” and incorporating these stages or phases into your business model was an inspired choice, and will help the reader better understand how to move forward with their business ideas overall.
The Verdict
Overall this is a must read novel for anyone interested in business and seeking new and creative ways of starting your own business. If you’ve been struggling with the confidence needed to take a leap of faith and start that business you always wanted to start, or wanted to find an approach to business that was less cut-throat and more spiritual, then this novel is for you. Be sure to grab your copy of Amy Simpkins novel “Spiral: A Catalyst for Innovation and Expansion” today!
April 4, 2019
While largely aimed at inspiring or leading you to find the inspiration to be innovative in building a new business of some kind, the concepts in Spiral could apply to your personal life, a hobby, or anywhere in your world where a little innovation, creativity, and fresh ideas might improve the situation. This review will have to be vague, since the alternative would be to repeat the whole book, but I’ll say the concept that provides the foundation of the book is interesting. It will have you thinking and, most importantly, re-thinking how you view certain seemingly opposite things.
The author makes some points that many of us would be prone to disagree with or resist, but she has a way of making her case with irrefutable logic, such that I found myself recognizing that my first instincts were wrong. Through this process you’ll recognize and discover skills you didn’t know you had and through applying these skills, hopefully find the way to go beyond anything you’ve been able to accomplish before. That’s the goal of the book and, if that sounds like something you’d like to do, read it and see if it helps you do so. I’m betting it does.
**Originally written for "Books and Pals" book blog. May have received a free review copy. **
The author makes some points that many of us would be prone to disagree with or resist, but she has a way of making her case with irrefutable logic, such that I found myself recognizing that my first instincts were wrong. Through this process you’ll recognize and discover skills you didn’t know you had and through applying these skills, hopefully find the way to go beyond anything you’ve been able to accomplish before. That’s the goal of the book and, if that sounds like something you’d like to do, read it and see if it helps you do so. I’m betting it does.
**Originally written for "Books and Pals" book blog. May have received a free review copy. **
October 8, 2018
Spiral was unlike any book I have ever read. It talks right to you, as though the book is your friend. It doesn't lay out a false prescription for success, but rather helps you ask yourself the right questions. It tears down walls of thinking that trap you into frustration, taking you from asking, ' why am I here again?" and "why does this always happen to me?" to "What am I supposed to be learning from this?" in a way which makes you excited for what is coming next. That was my favorite thing about the book. When I finished reading it (the first time; I'm halfway through again) I was left feeling hopeful about things that had been cloaked in negativity. Read this book. Open yourself up to a new way of looking at things. Learning to embrace the whole process, rather than just the doing of the thing, has been something I have been struggling with for a while. This book has been transformative in my approach to this, and I am forever grateful. Spiral is a book I will re-read, and in a world of near-infinite literary options, I can give no higher praise.
February 2, 2019
If you've got professional goals ...
If you've got professional goals, then Simpkins's Spiral: A Catalyst for Innovation and Expansion is a book worth the read. It's a book that combines experience with feelings and how to succeed. I see it as something that anyone with goals to increase their professional experience, or to become something more in their career, is inspirational and even something that is attemptable. The book is a framework for ideas to build careers or businesses that can be related to a person's professional life and goals. It's well written and put together in a way that makes the goals attainable.
If you've got professional goals, then Simpkins's Spiral: A Catalyst for Innovation and Expansion is a book worth the read. It's a book that combines experience with feelings and how to succeed. I see it as something that anyone with goals to increase their professional experience, or to become something more in their career, is inspirational and even something that is attemptable. The book is a framework for ideas to build careers or businesses that can be related to a person's professional life and goals. It's well written and put together in a way that makes the goals attainable.
March 17, 2019
husband: so what did you think of it
me: It was interesting and I really liked it.
husband: it's engineering
me yes, it's engineering
me: to myself: he's in for some surprises, I think
me: It was interesting and I really liked it.
husband: it's engineering
me yes, it's engineering
me: to myself: he's in for some surprises, I think
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews