“They took a relative view of risk... They had an understanding of the risks of something going wrong, but balanced that against missing an opportunity. When that opportunity exceeded the risk of going wrong? That's when they jumped.”
— Mitch Cohen

The quote archive

Innovation

A growing archive of 3,000+ moments, drawn from every interview.

This is a really exciting time for human space exploration, we have a lot to be hopeful about – and we have a whole bunch of private companies who have very credible strategies and vehicles. Like in so many other industries, the government has played a key role in kickstarting things – but to realise the full potential of this industry we'll need private industry to get involved seriously.

— Mike Massimino

Astronaut and educator who conducted spacewalks on the Hubble Space Telescope

Being at that altitude though – 100 miles higher than the space station, enables you to see even more of the planet's curvature – it's a different viewpoint, a different experience and perspective – you truly felt like you were interacting with the environment, you felt like a real spaceman – it was extraordinary.

— Mike Massimino

Astronaut and educator who conducted spacewalks on the Hubble Space Telescope

We were poor, had no branding, and had no money- the only way we could get people into store was to put everything on rollers, and move it to the side, so we could have yoga classes in the middle of the store- a lot of inventions come from the mother of necessity!

— Chip Wilson

Founder of Lululemon Athletica, Canadian entrepreneur and philanthropist

My fun statement is that if I see the same thing, three times in one week, from disparate news or information sources, I have to move quickly as it's a trend that's likely to happen.

— Chip Wilson

Founder of Lululemon Athletica, Canadian entrepreneur and philanthropist

There simply isn't enough creativity and bandwidth at the top to deal with the level of complexity and change in today's world. A century ago, information was expensive to acquire and move- bureaucracy was a logical way of bringing information together. The world simply doesn't work like that anymore.

— Gary Hamel

Management theorist & author who revolutionized strategic thinking

The traditional sources of capital for ideas — investment, charity, rich relatives, grants — are nowhere near sufficient to the number of good ideas in the world. Now, the internet has democratized this, and you don't need to be wealthy to be a patron. You can help bring something to life with $10 because you like the project, not because you see it as a financial return.

— Perry Chen

Founder of Kickstarter, crowdfunding platform pioneer

We are now at the same crossroads, with impact. There is an interesting parallel here with 1933, when we introduced the GAAP. Until then, there had been no real transparency on profit! After the Great Wall Street Crash of 1929, investors sat-up and said 'hey, this is crazy!' and they got transparency through the adoption of GAAP.

— Sir Ronald Cohen

Founder of Social Venture Network & Pioneer of Social Impact Investing

Creativity is about solving interesting problems, and problems are interesting because they have constraints. You cannot think outside the box, but you can think along the edges of the box. The box is something to lever and learn against. Look for the edges of the box and don't deny the boundaries!

— Seth Godin

Marketing Thought Leader & Author of "The Purple Cow

We are seeing the emergence, development and evolution of entire monetary systems live, unfolding before our eyes. You have Bitcoin and Ethereum and can imagine them as international monetary systems that bring-together local ecosystems. We used to have gold as a key reserve asset, and now it's the US dollar.

— Michel Rauchs

The ultimate goal is to be in a state of flow with machines. Think about people working with horses, or herding cattle with a dog, they are examples of interactions with other intelligent creatures in a way which is fluid and allows us to achieve something we couldn't do ourselves.

— Dr. Mark Sagar

Creator of AI baby "Baby X" & facial animation technology pioneer

BitTorrent is the first time in history that people found a way to make decentralised infrastructure work better and more efficiently than centralised. Transferring files through BitTorrent is 100-1000% faster than centralised infrastructure.

— Justin Sun

Founder of TRON blockchain platform & cryptocurrency entrepreneur

If we are to migrate our lives to the internet, we need a decentralized infrastructure that enables everyone to have control of their assets without being robbed. This is the same for money, right? Offline money is real money – nobody can take it from you. If you deposit that money with your bank or have a digital wallet with a bank, they can freeze your wallet, they can block transactions.

— Justin Sun

Founder of TRON blockchain platform & cryptocurrency entrepreneur

Even if there was no climate change… even if there was no problem with the environment… we would still need to replace the polluting infrastructure we have because it is too expensive and too outdated compared to modern, efficient, infrastructure.

— Bertrand Piccard

Swiss Adventurer & Pilot of Solar-Powered Aircraft Solar Impulse

We can only solve our ecological problems by linking ecology and economy. If we can create the right economic environment, change will happen. If it's more profitable to be efficient than wasteful, we will be efficient.

— Bertrand Piccard

Swiss Adventurer & Pilot of Solar-Powered Aircraft Solar Impulse

We must not only use the emotional part of exploration, but also the state of mind of exploration which encourages us to get out of our bad habits, beliefs, everything we know, our comfort zone, and even our way of thinking. The mindset of exploration encourages us to find new solutions.

— Bertrand Piccard

Swiss Adventurer & Pilot of Solar-Powered Aircraft Solar Impulse

I was working on the principle that if you only listen to the voices around you, you'll amalgamate them into something that already exists… My view was that consensus isn't going to build something that will change the game.

— Ben Francis

Founder and CEO of Gymshark, fitness apparel company