Everyone who's ever taken a shower has an idea. It's the person who gets out of the shower, dries off and does something about it who makes a difference.
Nolan BushnellRead
The game business reinvents itself every five years.
Interpretation
The video game industry undergoes significant changes and innovations roughly every five years.
Nolan Bushnell's quote highlights the dynamic nature of the game industry, emphasizing that it is continuously evolving to adapt to new technologies and consumer preferences. This reinvention cycle is crucial for staying relevant in a fast-paced market, reflecting the necessity of innovation and responsiveness within the business landscape.
In practice
In a keynote speech at a gaming conference.
Everyone who's ever taken a shower has an idea. It's the person who gets out of the shower, dries off and does something about it who makes a difference.
Creativity is every company's first driver. It's where everything starts, where energy and forward motion originate. Without that first charge of creativity, nothing else can take place.
A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer.
Everybody copied Atari products. So we started messing with them and it was fun. We bought enough chips that we could get them mislabeled. So we bankrupted at least two companies which copied our boards, and bought all the parts but they were the wrong parts, so they're sitting on all this inventory they can't sell because the games don't work.
Do I really want to do a mobile game that's one of 300,000, where discoverability is everything? You really have to have a little more sizzle on the steak. I would rather be one of 100 apps for Google Glass than one of 300,000 for iOS and Android.
If you don't hire at least one or two people that are smarter than you are, then you're a terrible manager and I don't need you.
In business, staying focused requires that you turn most opportunities down.
Part of company culture is path-dependent - it's the lessons you learn along the way.
No enterprise can exist for itself alone. It ministers to some great need, it performs some great service, not for itself, but for others; or failing therein, it ceases to be profitable and ceases to exist.
China is very entrepreneurial but has no rule of law. Europe has rule of law but isn't entrepreneurial. Combine rule of law, entrepreneurialism and a generally pro-business policy, and you have Apple.
I've said it for four decades - work 'on' your business, not just 'in' your business!
I suppose Virgin is an unusual brand in that I suspect we're the only 'way of life' brand in the world. We're one of maybe the top 30 best known brands in the world, yet if you look at the other 29, they all specialize in one area. Whether it's Google, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, etc., they all generally specialize in one area.
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