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 this business, by the time you realize you're in trouble, it's too late to save yourself. Unless you're running scared all the time, you're gone.
I think that business practices would improve immeasurably if they were guided by "feminine" pinciples, qualities like love, care, and intuition.
To make a pleasant and friendly impression is not alone good manners, but equally good business.
My own view is that every company requires a long-term view.
Pretty much, Apple and Dell are the only ones in this industry making money. They make it by being Wal-Mart. We make it by innovation.
The concept of disruption is about competitive response; it is not a theory of growth. It's adjacent to growth. But it's not about growth.
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