Mac Thornberry Quotes

What has worked before is never as good as something that has never been tried before, even if it doesn't work.

If you're not failing every now and again, it's a sign you're not doing anything very innovative.

Since I was in my early twenties, at ABC, I was always only interested in things that were not already being done.

How to teach people to do what hasn't been done is a great riddle.

Almost all new ideas have a certain aspect of foolishness when they are first produced.

Leadership requires that we challenge the conventional wisdom.

In the old days, you would chastise people for reinventing the wheel. Now we beg, 'Oh, please, please reinvent the wheel.'

Mindless habitual behavior is the enemy of innovation.

Continuity does not rule out fresh approaches to fresh situations.

You know that I'm always a proponent of doing things differently.

In order to innovate, you have to experiment.

I learned from my dad that change and experimentation are constants and important. You have to keep trying new things.

What really excites me in a project is when it goes in a way you haven't been before.

Nothing is more terrifying to me, really, than the status quo. I'll make mistakes before I keep doing something the same way.

I think we always move from imitation to assimilation to innovation, but I can't name you 20 people outside those we've already recognized who ever got to point three: innovation.

Nobody says you have to be shackled to tradition.

I don't believe in pitfalls. I believe in taking risks and not doing the same thing twice.

Don't hold back in your writing. Take risks. Go ahead and tackle that crazy idea that you think will never fly, because that may be the one that makes you stand out from the crowd. Keep pushing the envelope.

Unless you are breaking stuff, you are not moving fast enough.

If you're not doing something different, you're not doing anything.

Liberalism is the philosophy for our time, because it does not try to conserve every tradition of the past, because it does not apply to new problems the old doctrinaire solutions, because it is prepared to experiment and innovate and because it knows that the past is less important than the future.

All I know is, I'm trying to do things that are a little different whenever I can.

Part of the beauty of Silicon Valley is that people generally encourage you to think crazy. It's the hypothesis that there's nothing sacred that can't be changed.

I feel that one thing that a businessman can learn is do not follow a path that has already been successful. You will never be a path-breaker then.

Carry a big basket. In other words, be open to new ideas, different partners, and new practices, and have a willingness to dump out the old and irrelevant to make room for new approaches.