Reading time: 3 - 5 minutes
Video Time: 24 minutes 55 seconds
Alright, so a lot of us are back from vacation and I bet you’re itching for some more lunch learning. This time the theme is boldness in the business world. All this week we are going to showcase individuals who have done something different, risky, or innovative that has had an impact on their business. Being the video game junkie that I am I couldn’t resist shining the spotlight on Shigeru Miyamoto. Miyamoto is the General Manager for Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development, but you might know him better as the creator of Nintendo’s Italian mascot Super Mario.
Today’s video is a question and answer session between Miyamoto and his fans about his work at Nintendo. Miyamoto talks about his innovative creations the Nintendo Wii (mentioned as the Nintendo Revolution in the video) and the Nintendo DS, two systems that drop the conventional standards of gaming. The Wii has you trading in your regular corded controller for a motion sensing nun-chuck apparatus while the DS gives you the ability the play games via touch screen. Both gaming systems have experienced wild success during these tough economic times even though people are cutting back instead of spending. So what made Miyamoto risk it all on two very experimental gaming systems? His personal desire to see video games mimic real life. In the video you will see that Miyamoto wasn’t content with just sitting around playing games he wanted to be active. His strong desire to integrate motion into gameplay was risky, but looking back it’s clear to see that it was the right decision.
This should be a lesson to all of us who are out there trying to make it as an entrepreneur. If you’re not following your own personal convictions or don’t have enough faith in your product to try something completely out of the box then you might not succeed. Now I’m not saying that if you believe in your product enough you’re going to be successful, I’m just saying that it’s one of the first steps for it to be profitable. When you watch the video you can see that Miyamoto is deeply passionate about what he does and as entrepreneurs we should be too.
Just for fun, let’s put a little perspective on this. According to Wikipedia the Xbox 360, a competing gaming system, has sold 31 million units worldwide as of August 27, 2009; while the Nintendo Wii has sold 56.14 million units worldwide as of September 30, 2009. That means Nintendo has sold roughly 20 million more units than its leading competitor…not bad for Miyamoto’s radically new gaming system. As you watch this video, I hope you can find more insight on what it takes to be a bold entrepreneur.
Happy learning….and Game On!!!
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