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. – Nolan Bushnell
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. – Nolan Bushnell
Every company needs to have a skunkworks, to try things that have a high probability of failing. You try to minimize failure, but at the same time, if you’re not willing to try things that are inherently risky, you’re not going to make progress. – Nolan Bushnell
One of the big concerns I have is that most of the HR departments in a lot of companies are hiring away from creativity and they don’t know it. For instance, they are requiring everybody to have a college degree. The most creative people I know couldn’t deal with college. – Nolan Bushnell
Everybody believes in innovation until they see it. Then they think, ‘Oh, no; that’ll never work. It’s too different.’ – Nolan Bushnell
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. – Nolan Bushnell
I’m the only one who was predicting the Nintendo Wii would beat Sony’s PlayStation 3. – Nolan Bushnell
I believe there are Steve Jobses all around us. Really, what is happening is that they’re being edited out of importance. – Nolan Bushnell
I try to get a vision of the future, and then I try to figure out where the discontinuities are. – Nolan Bushnell
I basically look at PR as something you do if there’s an object in mind. But my ego doesn’t need it. – Nolan Bushnell
I’ve been in navigation systems, robotics, restaurants, communications systems, touch screens, and now I’m back in games. I like to say I have five-year A.D.D. – Nolan Bushnell
You wanna build your IQ higher in the next two years? Be uncomfortable. That means, learn something where you have a beginner’s mind. – Nolan Bushnell
I never, ever, saw the evil Steve Jobs. He was always the most well-mannered and respectful guy I knew. And we got to be pretty good friends. He didn’t suffer fools gladly. I guess he didn’t think I was a fool. – Nolan Bushnell
The subtle generational cues that make one thing cool and another uncool aren’t always obvious to a parent. My children are my dinner-table sounding board. I’ve come up with some wonderful ideas that they universally dismissed as ‘lame.’ – Nolan Bushnell
The idea is to become a best-selling author first and then the rest of my books will be slam dunks. – Nolan Bushnell
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 Bushnell
In the early days of the video game business, everybody played. The question is, what happened? My theory – and I think it’s pretty well borne out – is that in the ’80s, games got gory, and that lost the women. And then they got complex, and that lost the casual gamer. – Nolan Bushnell
I guess I’d like to be known for being an innovator, fostering creativity, thinking outside the box. You know, keeping people playful. – Nolan Bushnell
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. – Nolan Bushnell
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. – Nolan Bushnell
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. – Nolan Bushnell
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. – Nolan Bushnell
Radical innovation is difficult to fund. It seems scary. And the really radical things seem even more scary. – Nolan Bushnell
I want to fix education in the world. As soon as I work on that, I am going to work on world hunger and then world peace. – Nolan Bushnell
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. – Nolan Bushnell
