Mark Kurlansky Quotes

Britain is famous for being great at inventing and poor at commercializing.

I consider myself an inventor first and an entrepreneur second. In real life, my hero is Thomas Edison. He was a great inventor, but also an outstanding entrepreneur who was able to sell his inventions to the masses. He didn't just develop the light bulb; he invented the entire electric grid and power distribution system.

There is a premium on innovation and commercializing new ideas.

The reality is, is that we love competition, at Apple. We think it makes us all better. But we want people to invent their own stuff.

There's a lot of guys who use their likeness - to do movies, and do other business stuff, but not too many guys are actually making product. I'm making product, it's a different thing. A lot of guys are holding up Coke cans and get paid a lot of money to do that, but no one's making a Coke can. I'm the guy that's trying to make the Coke can.

Having a good idea is one thing, but persuading other people to buy it is quite another. Good inventors are polymaths: they think with their hands and their brains. They're experts in design, engineering and business.

Business fascinates me. It's very creative.

I want to create something like Sony. Not in terms of manufacturing products but creating something that is innovative, makes money, improves peoples' lives.

You need to invent things and you need to get them to people. You need to commercialize those inventions. Obviously, the best way we've come up with doing that is through companies.

Great businessmen are creators.

Jobs has within him sort of this conflict, but he doesn't quite see it as a conflict between being hippie-ish and anti-materialistic but wanting to sell things like Wozniak's board. Wanting to create a business.

My company invents all kinds of new technology in lots of different areas. And we do that for a couple of reasons. We invent for fun - invention is a lot of fun to do - and we also invent for profit. The two are related because the profit actually takes long enough that if it isn't fun, you wouldn't have the time to do it.

Great entrepreneurs focus intensely on an opportunity where others see nothing.

I'm inspired by Walt Disney. I'm inspired by Howard Hughes. I'm inspired by Henry Ford. I'm inspired by Steve Jobs. I mean, I'm inspired by James Perse.

As a student, I had a hobby of inventing new ideas for products. For me, thinking of new businesses is like inventing new products.

I think of entrepreneurship as a way of creating value.

Coming up with novel ideas and converting them into real products has always been as natural as breathing for me.

I want to be an inventor in the real sense.

When I did inventions, I always thought only of the invention itself, but the kids would ask for marketing materials.

Entrepreneurism is simply taking nothing, applying talent, brains, financial creativity and hustle, and turning that into something.

If Thomas Edison had gone to business school, we would all be reading by larger candles.

You have to combine both things: invention and innovation focus, plus the company that can commercialize things and get them to people.

Ideas are the currency of the new economy.

The man who puts life into an idea is acclaimed a genius, because he does the right thing at the right time. Therein lies the difference between the genius and a commonplace man.

America demands invention and innovation to succeed.