People will try to tell you that all the great opportunities have been snapped up. In reality, the world changes every second, blowing new opportunities in all directions, including yours.
Ken Hakuta
Lack of money is no obstacle. Lack of an idea is an obstacle.
In warm weather, people are sillier.
A lot of great inventions are just little improvements on past ideas.
There are some keys to success in the fad business. One is never give up. You need total motivation and the right kind of creativity. You also have to back the right activity. It is a disaster if you back the wrong idea with your energy. You not only lose money, but you take a big social risk.
A fad is something that gives just a couple of minutes of extreme fun. It can be useful. It can be useless.
A true fad has little utility beyond its entertainment value. Think of the Mood Ring, the Pet Rock, the Slinky, Silly Putty.
Most fads get jump starts because of the media.
As a book is judged by its cover, so a fad is judged by its name.
Speed is vital. You got to strike fast. Fads have short lives, and you got to get what you can - like the case of the Pet Rock.
I wouldn't finance a fad if I were a banker.
I want to be the Ann Landers for fad people.
Fads are born to die.
Most people think the Shakers are in Pennsylvania. They tend to confuse them with the Amish.
I hope to become the Dear Abby of fads.
It's incredible how much money you can make on a rubber toy.
Fads get hot in California. A good idea can come from Des Moines, but it's not going to be anything there. Then it'll hit Venice Beach or Westwood and go all around the country, back to Des Moines.
In Japan, the more expensive a restaurant is, the larger the plates and the smaller the portions. The cheaper a restaurant is, the smaller the plates and the larger the portions.
In fad standard time, a day is a month, and a fad that lasts two months is a classic.
Generally, successful fads have some kind of play value, like the Frisbee, Slinky, Silly Putty, my Wallwalker. They're generally inexpensive items, impulse items. They tend to be rather useless items, too. They provide a few minutes of amusement.
Nam June Paik's artworks are highly intellectual, cutting-edge, and sophisticated. But he was also witty, humorous, and self-deprecating.
Whatever you do, don't sink your life's savings into cliche items.
I've done strategic planning, all kind of cash flows, but in fad marketing, it is all really irrelevant. It is marketing by total gut feeling. There is no market research. You either sell 500 of something, and it is a total bomb, or you sell 500 million.
Good ideas are a dime a dozen. It's what you do with them that counts.
Al Gore has a lot to do with the mainstream attention to global warming, but you can't call him a fad, even if he did dance the Macarena.
I think what you inherit is not real. I haven't inherited anything. What I have is really mine because I made it myself.
I've had a real business education.
To me, all these things tell a story, and I find clothespin parts as interesting as 'collectors' furniture.' Good pieces of Shaker furniture are interesting, but only so much. It is the other things and the personal effects that let me feel the Shakers.
Everyone underestimates the maturity of kids.
I was the first person to export Teflon-coated ironing board covers to Japan.
The product of stickers will be around for a long time, but how it gets to the consumer will change.
Voting statistics for younger voters is pathetic.
People came to my house in limos looking for WallWalkers, and they made emergency calls, breaking into our phone conversations trying to order them.
Opportunity just exists in the air for a few minutes. If you don't obey your gut feeling right away, you've lost your chance.
America is just a cool place.
My life is a life of hobbies and enthusiasm.
When I was a boy, my father used to criticize me for - it's hard to translate - I guess you could say 'mindless time.' Thinking what to do. I need to be bored so I can be pushed into doing something.
Shaker pieces were not to show off. One was not to waste energy to decorate.
It was very enticing to become a yuppie, but I didn't want to do that.
I like things that don't go together.
There are conventions for people with serious, boring inventions, but fad inventors need help. You need someone to talk to. You just can't tell your friends you're going to invent a pet rock and mortgage your house to pay for it. It's embarrassing... risky mentally. Your friends think you're crazy.
I've become obsessed with preserving Shaker furniture. I feel as though every influence in my life, everything I've learned and know, all the money I've made, has come together to take care of it.
I don't need a big K Street office or a British secretary or a facade for my ego.
Anything I do, I do fanatically.
Contrary to what most people believe, fads are made, not born.
When I did inventions, I always thought only of the invention itself, but the kids would ask for marketing materials.
Many young people don't vote because they feel unwelcome and irrelevant, and that's the system's fault... As much as MTV tries to get them to vote, politicians don't include young voters because young voters don't donate money.
If you come up with something that's useless and promote it the right way, everybody will have to have it yesterday, even though they get up the next morning and wonder why they bought it.
It's crazy to go into manufacturing. That's not where the money is.
I'm no Mattel.
