Nolan Bushnell quotes: Atari and Chuck E. Cheese’s founder tickles our brains with the following quotes.
“The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It’s as simple as that. 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.”
“A lot of people think that success is luck and being in the right place at the right time. But I think if you’re willing to work harder than anybody else, you can create an awful lot of your own luck.”
“Everyone who has ever taken a shower has had an idea. It’s the person who gets out of the shower, dries off, and does something about it that makes a difference.”
“The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer.”
“The ultimate inspiration is the deadline.”
“Work smart, not hard.”
“Business is a good game – lots of competition and a minimum of rules. You keep score with money.”
“The only business to be in is the fun business.”
“Once a decision has been made and all that’s left is to carry it out, then all apprehension about the final result must be deliberately put aside. Which means this: as soon as you’ve made a reasonable decision, based on factual information, the time has come for action.”
“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.”
“People like secrets. Creative people really like secrets.”
“The truly creative people tend to be outliers.”
“You could always figure out a way to make room for smart people.”
“I really look for curiosity because I think curiosity is that forcing function that gives people knowledge and capability.”
“If you try to do everything, you end up doing nothing.”
“My sweet spot is figuring out how to make a product that people love and how to refine it to make them love it more. All the rest is business noise.”
“Innovation is hard. It really is. Because most people don’t get it. Remember, the automobile, the airplane, the telephone – these were all considered toys at their introduction because they had no constituency. They were too new.”
“There are a lot of things about having money that are perceived to be cool but that aren’t. Maybe if you’re a CEO jerk who likes going coast to coast by himself in a G4, then that’s fine. But that’s not me. And it never will be.”
“Today, companies have to radically revolutionize themselves every few years just to stay relevant. That’s because technology and the internet have transformed the business landscape forever. The fast-paced digital age has accelerated the need for companies to become agile.”
“It’s the whole idea that you want to surround yourself with people with enthusiasm and passion and curiosity.”
“Hire for passion and intensity; there is training for everything else.”
“A good interviewer is able to ferret out what the applicant is really passionate about. Ask them what they do for fun, what they’re reading, try and find out if they have a life outside of work.”
“Sometimes when you hire people who have to pass a Mr. Congeniality test, you end up losing some of the non-conformists who will give you different views and perspectives.”
“Some of the best projects to ever come out of Atari or Chuck E. Cheese’s were from high school dropouts, college dropouts. One guy had been in jail.”
“Being your own boss is much superior to working for the man. Including working for your father.”
“I had an awful lot of my soul invested in Atari culture.”
“I’ve always been a tech-head.”
“I founded Atari in my garage in Santa Clara while at Stanford. When I was in school, I took a lot of business classes. I was really fascinated by economics. You end up having to be a marketeer, finance maven, and a little bit of a technologist in order to get a business going.”
“In 1980, Atari was bringing in around two billion dollars in revenue and Chuck E. Cheese’s some five hundred million. I still didn’t feel too bad that I had turned down a one-third ownership of Apple – although I was beginning to think it might turn out to be a mistake.”
“Selling Atari when I did – I think that’s my biggest regret. And I probably should have gotten back heavily into the games business in the late 80s. But I was operating under this theory at the time that the way to have an interesting life was to reinvent yourself every five or six years.”
“Atari showed that young people could start big companies. Without that example it would have been harder for Jobs and Bill Gates, and people who came after them, to do what they did.”
“Steve Jobs asked me if I would put $50,000 in and he would give me a third of the company. I was so smart, I said no. It’s kind of fun to think about that, when I’m not crying.”
“The idea is to become a best-selling author first and then the rest of my books will be slam dunks.”
“Walk to work, even if it’s four miles. Ride a bike to work. Drive a different way. On your way there, try to find beauty. You’d be surprised how much more of the neighborhood you can perceive and experience when you’re looking for unique spots of beauty.”
“You wanna build your IQ higher in the next two years? Be uncomfortable. That means, learn something where you have a beginner’s mind.”
“The thing we don’t want to do is overstate the benefits, but there is all kinds of proof that exercise, both physical and mental, increases brain activity.”
“My name is Nolan Bushnell. Though you may not know me I founded Atari, and Atari was credited with founding the video game business.”
“I guess I’d like to be known for being an innovator, fostering creativity, thinking outside the box. You know, keeping people playful.”
“I’m going to work till I drop. This isn’t work, this is fun. It’s my play. And I hope to be playing for about another hundred years.”
“Finally, when I tell people I’m a millionaire, it’s true.”
