California starts a lot of trends.
— Ken Hakuta
America is just a cool place.
Speed is vital. You got to strike fast. Fads have short lives, and you got to get what you can - like the case of the Pet Rock.
I've had a real business education.
A lot of great inventions are just little improvements on past ideas.
I want to be the Ann Landers for fad people.
Al Gore has a lot to do with the mainstream attention to global warming, but you can't call him a fad, even if he did dance the Macarena.
Most people who have had big fads have turned out to be just like their products: one-shot deals.
In California, you want to have the strangest thing, be doing the strangest thing. People admire that.
Nam June Paik's artworks are highly intellectual, cutting-edge, and sophisticated. But he was also witty, humorous, and self-deprecating.
It's crazy to go into manufacturing. That's not where the money is.
If you come up with something that's useless and promote it the right way, everybody will have to have it yesterday, even though they get up the next morning and wonder why they bought it.
Everyone underestimates the maturity of kids.
People will try to tell you that all the great opportunities have been snapped up. In reality, the world changes every second, blowing new opportunities in all directions, including yours.
Whatever you do, don't sink your life's savings into cliche items.
The product of stickers will be around for a long time, but how it gets to the consumer will change.
I don't need a big K Street office or a British secretary or a facade for my ego.
I think what you inherit is not real. I haven't inherited anything. What I have is really mine because I made it myself.
A fad is something that gives just a couple of minutes of extreme fun. It can be useful. It can be useless.
There are some keys to success in the fad business. One is never give up. You need total motivation and the right kind of creativity. You also have to back the right activity. It is a disaster if you back the wrong idea with your energy. You not only lose money, but you take a big social risk.
I've done strategic planning, all kind of cash flows, but in fad marketing, it is all really irrelevant. It is marketing by total gut feeling. There is no market research. You either sell 500 of something, and it is a total bomb, or you sell 500 million.
You never know where you're going to get inspiration.
People always ask me how I got interested in the Shakers, but I have no clear-cut answer.
You can't be an inventor trying to figure a better way of changing the spare tire. That's boring. We need someone who figures out how to hit a button and turn the entire car upside down.
Fads get hot in California. A good idea can come from Des Moines, but it's not going to be anything there. Then it'll hit Venice Beach or Westwood and go all around the country, back to Des Moines.
I hope to become the Dear Abby of fads.
I want the Wallwalker in the back of consumers' minds, but not actively thought about. When it returns, they'll react, 'Oh, there they are!' and they'll buy them again as impulse items.
Fads are born to die.
In warm weather, people are sillier.
When I did inventions, I always thought only of the invention itself, but the kids would ask for marketing materials.
Lack of money is no obstacle. Lack of an idea is an obstacle.
A true fad has little utility beyond its entertainment value. Think of the Mood Ring, the Pet Rock, the Slinky, Silly Putty.
Most fads get jump starts because of the media.
When I was a boy, my father used to criticize me for - it's hard to translate - I guess you could say 'mindless time.' Thinking what to do. I need to be bored so I can be pushed into doing something.
The Japanese really like things very well planned out. I enjoy things as they come by.
As a book is judged by its cover, so a fad is judged by its name.
I know my life runs in cycles.
It's incredible how much money you can make on a rubber toy.
Other people might buy a Rolls-Royce. I'd rather encourage people to be creative.
Shaker pieces were not to show off. One was not to waste energy to decorate.
Generally, successful fads have some kind of play value, like the Frisbee, Slinky, Silly Putty, my Wallwalker. They're generally inexpensive items, impulse items. They tend to be rather useless items, too. They provide a few minutes of amusement.
People in Los Angeles are more used to acting silly than other people.
I have always been fascinated by Shaker design and the culture of the Shakers.
I'm no Mattel.
In fad standard time, a day is a month, and a fad that lasts two months is a classic.
Many young people don't vote because they feel unwelcome and irrelevant, and that's the system's fault... As much as MTV tries to get them to vote, politicians don't include young voters because young voters don't donate money.
Voting statistics for younger voters is pathetic.
I wouldn't finance a fad if I were a banker.
Contrary to what most people believe, fads are made, not born.
Anything I do, I do fanatically.
