We’ve sourced some of the most interesting and thought-provoking Ken Hakuta Quotes. Each of the following quotes is overflowing with creativity, and knowledge.
I want to be the Ann Landers for fad people.
Contrary to what most people believe, fads are made, not born.
Whatever you do, don’t sink your life’s savings into cliche items.
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.
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.
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.
A fad is something that gives just a couple of minutes of extreme fun. It can be useful. It can be useless.
I don’t need a big K Street office or a British secretary or a facade for my ego.
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.
Good ideas are a dime a dozen. It’s what you do with them that counts.
It’s crazy to go into manufacturing. That’s not where the money is.
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.
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.
I know my life runs in cycles.
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.
Shaker pieces were not to show off. One was not to waste energy to decorate.
Nam June Paik’s artworks are highly intellectual, cutting-edge, and sophisticated. But he was also witty, humorous, and self-deprecating.
To me, all these things tell a story, and I find clothespin parts as interesting as ‘collectors’ furniture.’ Good pieces of Shaker furniture are interesting, but only so much. It is the other things and the personal effects that let me feel the Shakers.
Lack of money is no obstacle. Lack of an idea is an obstacle.
In California, you want to have the strangest thing, be doing the strangest thing. People admire that.
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.
Everyone underestimates the maturity of kids.
Most people think the Shakers are in Pennsylvania. They tend to confuse them with the Amish.
I hope to become the Dear Abby of fads.
I wouldn’t finance a fad if I were a banker.
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.
Most fads get jump starts because of the media.
In fad standard time, a day is a month, and a fad that lasts two months is a classic.
People always ask me how I got interested in the Shakers, but I have no clear-cut answer.
