Nintendo Philosophy

I have admired Nintendo for a long time. I have admired them since the day my brother and I got our first video game system for Christmas, the SNES. But back then, admiration was mostly wide-eyed wonder at the magic of controlling colors on the screen. Now, ten years later, I admire this game company for very different reasons (in addition, of course, to those I had when I was a kid).

When it came time to make a new generation of systems, Sony and Microsoft, huge gaming companies, decided the best rout was to take what's been known to work and ramp it up to a technological platform it had never before reached. Sony especially embodies this approach. But what did Nintendo do? Did they make a GameCube 360? What about a Gameboy III? No, they didn't do that.

Instead of simply progressing forward with smoother graphics, Nintendo took a different approach. They asked: "How can we make as many people happy with our products as possible, thereby generating the most sales?" This kind of thinking is what developed the Wii and the Nintendo DS. They thought in a new way, and it worked much better than the obvious path. The DS is now the best-selling game system of all time, and the Wii has very nearly overtaken the 360, even though the Xbox had a year's head start.

This success story helped me remember the same thing seems to have always applied. It's the great ideas, not necessarily the great money or muscle, that makes the greatest and most beneficial change.

So how can I apply that to my own life? This idea of big, innovative change--the great idea that shapes the future--is one that I will be contemplating for quite a while.