Alan Schaaf Quotes

I never pick up an item without thinking of how I might improve it.

You don't always have to start over to create an emotional reaction to your product. It's always powerful to deliver a breakthrough, but there's also a true art to making something great even better.

Innovation usually arises from somebody taking a product already in production and making it better: better glass, better aluminum, a better chip. Innovation always starts with a product.

Part of the process is always, 'Is there a better way?' We try to think through if there's something we can do better creatively or technically, or just is more efficient.

There's no good idea that can't be improved on.

Whenever I go on a ride, I'm always thinking of what's wrong with the thing and how it can be improved.

People can come to me, and no matter how expert they are, I can virtually always see a way of doing something better.

I don't want to disrupt anything. We never conceive of our products as disruptive - we don't look at something and say, 'Let's disrupt that.' It's always about how we can evolve this and make this better.

You can put me in anything and I will make it better.

Even when things are going well, there are always aspects that can be improved.

Finding a better way is all I do.

I always try to find better ways to do things. Whether it's a game plan, a practice, a meeting, an interview, whatever it is. I'm going to find a way to find a way to analyze it and find a better way to do it. That's my mindset. I've never been satisfied with anything. That's just my mindset. I'm always trying to find a better way to do things.

I love recreating, and I love elevating - anything I do I want do ten times better every time.

Sometimes you have to get rid of something that's good, and tinker with something that's better.

Always remember, however, that there’s usually a simpler and better way to do something than the first way that pops into your head.

It's true that the original idea was mine, but what you see today is the work of probably tens of thousands of the world's best engineers, all concentrating on improving the product, reducing the cost, things of that sort.

I was just taught very early that if I didn't solve problems, I was headed for a very dark path. Problems were everywhere. Now, even if there are no problems, I look for problems. I'm like, 'You know what? I don't like the way this spoon works. I want to design a new spoon.'

We got to this point by constantly perfecting our products.

You can always improve on something, the technology is different today, but I would leave it well alone. If there was something that was incomplete, that might be interesting... because I do that on my website.

There isn't anything in the world that can't be made better.

I think anyone who makes products has this simultaneous joy and, almost, shame looking at it. You look at it all day, and all you can see is all these things you want to make better.

If you find a solution with the Cube, it doesn't mean you find everything. It's only a starting point. You can work on and find something else: you can improve your solution, you can make it shorter, you can go deeper and deeper and collect knowledge and many other things.

Impact is just always improving at all angles. There is a lot of creativity and thought that goes into everything.

Everything I do is about improvement.

We have to try to make the game better than it was when we came in.