"Well, when you're trying to create things that are new, you have to be prepared to be on the edge of risk"
About this Quote
Eisner frames creativity the way a CEO wants it framed: as a controllable asset that just happens to require a stomach for danger. The line has the plainspoken cadence of a business maxim, but its real work is rhetorical permission-giving. It tells employees, investors, and the public that uncertainty isn’t a sign of mismanagement; it’s the admission price for novelty.
The key move is in “prepared.” Risk here isn’t romanticized as chaos or recklessness. It’s something you train for, budget for, and, crucially, manage. That’s Eisner’s corporate spin on the artist’s myth: innovation is not inspiration striking, it’s an organizational posture. “On the edge” also matters. He’s not advocating jumping off a cliff; he’s advocating operating near the boundary where outcomes aren’t guaranteed but the enterprise is still intact. That’s how conglomerates sell experimentation without sounding irresponsible.
In context, Eisner’s Disney years were defined by an aggressive push to expand the brand and modernize the company: blockbuster animation, theme-park growth, new distribution bets, and occasional high-profile stumbles. The quote reads like a postmortem and a preemptive defense at once. If a risk pays off, it’s visionary leadership. If it flops, the failure gets recast as evidence the company was doing the “new” thing correctly.
Subtext: don’t punish the process for the inevitable misses. Reward the willingness to stand where reputations and quarterly reports can wobble. That’s how big institutions try to keep a startup pulse without surrendering the steering wheel.
The key move is in “prepared.” Risk here isn’t romanticized as chaos or recklessness. It’s something you train for, budget for, and, crucially, manage. That’s Eisner’s corporate spin on the artist’s myth: innovation is not inspiration striking, it’s an organizational posture. “On the edge” also matters. He’s not advocating jumping off a cliff; he’s advocating operating near the boundary where outcomes aren’t guaranteed but the enterprise is still intact. That’s how conglomerates sell experimentation without sounding irresponsible.
In context, Eisner’s Disney years were defined by an aggressive push to expand the brand and modernize the company: blockbuster animation, theme-park growth, new distribution bets, and occasional high-profile stumbles. The quote reads like a postmortem and a preemptive defense at once. If a risk pays off, it’s visionary leadership. If it flops, the failure gets recast as evidence the company was doing the “new” thing correctly.
Subtext: don’t punish the process for the inevitable misses. Reward the willingness to stand where reputations and quarterly reports can wobble. That’s how big institutions try to keep a startup pulse without surrendering the steering wheel.
Quote Details
| Topic | Startup |
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