Don't undertake a project unless it is manifestly important and nearly impossible.
Edwin LandRead
I believe quite simply that the small company of the future will be as much a research organization as it is a manufacturing company.
Interpretation
The future of small companies will focus equally on research and manufacturing.
Edwin Land's quote reflects the evolving landscape of business, suggesting that small companies in the future will prioritize innovation and research just as much as they emphasize production and manufacturing. This paradigm shift highlights the importance of creativity and development in staying competitive in a rapidly changing market.
In practice
In a pitch meeting, you might use this quote to emphasize the importance of research in your business model.
Don't undertake a project unless it is manifestly important and nearly impossible.
Industry is best at the intersection of science and art.
It is a curious property of research activity that after the problem has been solved the solution seems obvious. This is true not only for those who have not previously been acquainted with the problem, but also for those who have worked over it for years.
My motto is very personal and may not fit anyone else or any other company. It is: Don't do anything that someone else can do. Don't undertake a project unless it is manifestly important and nearly impossible.
Work only on problems that are manifestly important and seem to be nearly impossible to solve. That way you will have a natural market for your product and no competition.
Intense concentration for hour after hour can bring out resources in people that they didn't know they had.
A child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all.
Five or ten years ago, when it was clear the Internet was becoming a mainstream phenomenon, it was equally clear that a lot of people were being left out and could be left behind
Marketers use big data profiling to predict who is about to get pregnant, who is likely to buy a new car, and who is about to change sexual orientations. That's how they know what ads to send to whom. The NSA, meanwhile, wants to know who is likely to commit an act of terrorism - and for this, they need us.
The remarkable social impact and economic success of the Internet is in many ways directly attributable to the architectural characteristics that were part of its design. The Internet was designed with no gatekeepers over new content or services.
Without big data analytics, companies are blind and deaf, wandering out onto the Web like deer on a freeway.
Let us hope that the advent of a successful flying machine, now only dimly foreseen and nevertheless thought to be possible, will bring nothing but good into the world; that it shall abridge distance, make all parts of the globe accessible, bring men into closer relation with each other, advance civilization, and hasten the promised era in which there shall be nothing but peace and goodwill among all men.
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