“Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things. Because we’re curious. And curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”
– Walt E. Disney
Origen: CB insights newsletter – Disney’s secret sauce
Curiosity wins
Here’s the winning quote.
“Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things. Because we’re curious. And curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”
– Walt E. Disney
The quote’s origins are pretty interesting. It turns out the quote was something like the in-house motto of WED (which references Disney’s initials), a design and architectural company that Walt Disney himself formed to build Disneyland. The final lines of the actual quote go on to read, “We’re always exploring and experimenting. At WED, we call it Imagineering — the blending of creative imagination with technical know-how.”
WED evolved “Imagineering” into an intricate and well-documented set of creative principles, and later, there was even a business book published promoting them as an innovation toolbox. When The Walt Disney Company absorbed WED, Imagineering became part of Disney’s product development DNA.
So there you have it! The quote is about 30 words long, but arguably the world’s largest media company was built on the back of the principles embodied in it.