People take the longest possible paths, digress to numerous dead ends, and make all kinds of mistakes. Then historians come along and write summaries of this messy, nonlinear process and make it appear like a simple, straight line. Dean Kamen More Quotes by Dean Kamen More Quotes From Dean Kamen An innovation is one of those things that society looks at and says, if we make this part of the way we live and work, it will change the way we live and work. Dean Kamen change work life Most of the time you will fail, but you will also occasionally succeed. Those occasional successes make all the hard work and sacrifice worthwhile. Dean Kamen succeed sacrifice hard-work Life is so short. Why waste a single day of it doing something that doesn't matter, that doesn't try to do something big? Dean Kamen waste matter trying I don't work on a project unless I believe that it will dramatically improve life for a bunch of people. Dean Kamen projects believe people In the culture of America, in a free culture, you get what you celebrate. And in this culture, we have two obsessions, become a group that becomes a group that celebrates sports heroes and entertainment heroes. There's no room left for kids to see even a little bit of the opportunities to really, really get excited about becoming an inventor, an engineer, or a scientist, a problem solver. Dean Kamen hero sports kids It’s not what you do – it’s what you are becoming. Dean Kamen becoming Inspiration comes from the heart. The letter ‘I’ is the heart of F”I”RST… (F Inspiration R S T). Dean Kamen inspiration letters heart You have teenagers thinking they're going to make millions as NBA stars when that's not realistic for even 1 percent of them. Becoming a scientist or engineer is. Dean Kamen teenage stars inspirational The city needs a car like a fish needs a bicycle. Dean Kamen car cities needs Education, actual learning - it is hard work. It's very personal. Your parents don't teach you anything. Your teachers don't teach you anything. The government doesn't teach you anything. You read it. You don't understand it; you read it again. You break a pencil and read it again. Dean Kamen government hard-work teacher Everybody has to be able to participate in a future that they want to live for. That's what technology can do. Dean Kamen able technology want I do not want to waste any time. And if you are not working on important things, you are wasting time. Dean Kamen waste important want What really makes it an invention is that someone decides not to change the solution to a known problem, but to change the question. Dean Kamen invention solutions problem Innovation needs to be nurtured throughout an organization. Management is doing things right, whereas leadership is doing the right things. Dean Kamen innovation organization needs Sporting competitions seem to be what we obsess over, frankly. So if we can put engineering, science, technology into a format of healthy, fun competition, we can attract all sorts of kids that might not see the kind of activity we do as accessible or rewarding. Dean Kamen technology fun kids I think an education is not only important, it is the most important thing you can do with your life. Dean Kamen important can-do thinking More than ever, the world needs good engineers. However, the pool of talent is shrinking not growing. Dean Kamen shrinking world needs Tell me it's never been done. Because the only real laws in this world-the only things we really know-are the two postulates of relativity, the three laws of Newton, the four laws of thermodynamics, and Maxwell's equation-no, scratch that, the only things we really know are Maxwell's equations, the three laws of Newton, the two postulates of relativity, and the periodic table. That's all we know that's true. All the rest are man's laws Dean Kamen real law men We are in a race between knowledge and catastrophe. If we keep track of what is important, never lower our standards or forget why we are here, we have the ability to determine the fate of the world. Dean Kamen fate track race Kids are intimidated by the way science and technology is presented. It's made, frankly, quite boring and it becomes part of a curriculum that chases particularly women and minorities away. Dean Kamen minorities technology kids