Robert Noyce Quotes
12 quotes from Robert Noyce — Co-inventor of the microchip and co-founder of both Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel..
“Start with a growing market. Swim in a stream that becomes a river and ultimately an ocean. Be a leader in that market, not a follower, and constantly build the best products possible.”
“If ethics are poor at the top, that behavior is copied down through the organization.”
“Innovation is everything. When you're on the forefront, you can see what the next innovation needs to be. When you're behind, you have to spend your energy catching up.”
“Don't be encumbered by history, just go out and do something wonderful.”
“From the beginning at Intel, we planned on being big.”
“Optimism is an essential ingredient of innovation. How else can the individual welcome change over security, adventure over staying in safe places?”
“The concept hit me like the atom bomb.”
“With his strong face, his athlete's build, and the Gary Cooper manner, Bob Noyce projected what psychologists call the halo effect. People with the halo effect seem to know exactly what they're doing and moreover make you want to admire them for it. They make you see the halos over their heads.”
“Position power is not as important as knowledge power.”
“Bob Noyce took me under his wing. I was young, in my twenties, and he was in his early fifties. He tried to give me the lay of the land, to give me a perspective that I could only partially understand. You can't really understand what is going on now unless you understand what came before.”
“Everybody liked Bob. He was an extraordinarily smart guy who didn't need to let you know he was that smart. He could be your neighbor, but he had lots of machinery in his head.”
“Make sure we are preparing our next generation to flourish in a high-tech age. And that means education of the lowest and the poorest, as well as at the graduate school level.”
