Edwin Catmull Quotes

When you're in the back of the pack, you can gamble a little bit more.

I talk a lot about taking risks, and then I follow that up very quickly by saying, 'Take prudent risks.'

Risk and failure is a part of our equation, and if you are seeing too little failure, you are actually probably not taking enough risks.

At Nintendo, we do not run from risk. We run to it.

It is not the manager's job to prevent risks. It is the manager's job to make it safe to take them.

I'm quite cautious in most areas of my life, but I'm always happy to gamble when it comes to acting. I'm not frightened of falling on my face.

However much risk we are taking, we can and probably should take more.

Everyone in a successful organization must be willing and ready to risk. Risk is like change; it's not a choice.

There is the risk you cannot afford to take, and there is the risk you cannot afford not to take.

I take risks sometimes, and it's not the best choice. I have to take that kind of risk to become one of the best players in the world. If that's what I want to be, I cannot just play simple.

I always think of the craziest idea first and then work backwards, because you never know: that person that you think would never return your call might be sitting at home with nothing to do.

I try to be precise with my passes but take some risks as well.

There's a lot of times that you got to put yourself out there to fail, you can't be afraid to fail.

I'm totally comfortable with taking some risk, but as long as it's doctrinated in something that makes sense.

In the workplace, we're taught to worry about what happens if we don't have full, complete knowledge of every detail. But if you create a culture and an environment that rewards people for taking risks, even if they don't succeed, you can start changing behavior.

I didn't have a career plan. But what I did was, whenever there was a door open and a new opportunity, I always looked into it and took a chance and walked through the door.

If you're too methodical, too fearful, you're not going to win. But the clever thing is to make the calculation correctly about where and when to go over the top. You've got to know when to push it and when to come back.

I think the culture and DNA of our organization is to take risks.

I still have the mentality of a street musician, because I was one for five years. Every opportunity that comes my way, I feel like, 'Absolutely, let's do this.' Sometimes, it's to my detriment. But I don't think you become successful by not saying yes to opportunities.

You can do a good job when you play it safe, but you can't do a spectacular job. You have to risk it and be in danger of looking like an absolute fool.

I have taken lot of risks in life, and I believe that life is about taking risks.

As a player you can't be too worried if you take a risk and whether it's not going to come off.

When you operate from a nothing-left-to-lose mentality, it's essentially the same thing as the 'Law of Least Resistance.' You have a goal in mind, but you're not emotionally attached to the outcome. You're focusing on all of the little steps inbetween.

You need to listen to the people experiencing the problems, and their ideas need to crowd out the words of the 'can't be done-ers.'

All courses of action are risky, so prudence is not in avoiding danger (it's impossible), but calculating risk and acting decisively. Make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth. Develop the strength to do bold things, not the strength to suffer.