• Columnists

Chris Carbone, Futurist

Chris Carbone has worked in trend and foresight consulting for over a decade, serving clients from Fortune 500 corporation and foreign and US government agencies. During this time he has researched and authored dozens of reports and scenarios on wide-ranging topics…from the future of leisure and play, to the future of urban mobility, to emerging consumer lifestyles in China.

Chris has been quoted in numerous publications including The Miami Herald, The Washington Post Express, and Fast Company, and appeared on the CBS Early Show. He currently oversees Innovaro’s two multi-client research projects—Global Lifestyles and Technology Foresight—and contributes to the firm’s custom engagements.

Chris has an MBA from Johns Hopkins University with a concentration in marketing, and received his undergraduate degree in history from Gettysburg College. For more information, contact him at chris.carbone@innovaro.com.

About Innovaro—Insights & Research

Innovaro Insight & Research helps organizations understand and shape the future of their business. Through its syndicated and custom research services it provides actionable business insights to help clients uncover emerging consumer needs and behaviors, anticipate and seize growth opportunities, define critical emerging issues shaping the future of their industry, mitigate risk, and enrich decision-making. For more information visit /www.innovaro.com.

No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of another.”

– Charles Dickens

Entrepreneurs are willing to roll the dice with their money or reputation on the line in support of an idea or enterprise.”

– Victor Kiam

Our deepest wishes are whispers of our authentic selves. We must learn to respect them. We must learn to listen.”

– Sarah Ban Breathnach

It is easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them.”

– Alfred Adler

What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?”

– Magical

You only live once. But if you do it right, once is enough.”

– Mae West

Change is a math formula. Change happens when the cost of the status quo is greater than the risk of change.”

– Alan Webber, author, "Rules of Thumb"

4oz tequila + 1oz TripleSec + 2oz lime juice + 1oz simple syrup (sugar=water), 1 cup crushed ice. Shake + dance around the kitchen.

– Avenida Margarita

Are you willing to help other people succeed even when it’s not a requirement of your job to be of assistance?”

– Steven Schussler

Destiny is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.”

– William Jennings Bryan

Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.”

– Helen Keller

That which grows fast withers as rapidly; that which grows slowly endures.”

– J.G. Holland, novelist

At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want.”

– Lao Tzu

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”

– Albert Einstein

Never cut what you can untie.”

– Joseph Joubert

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.”

– Anais Nin

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.”

– President Calvin Coolidge

Nurture your mind with great thoughts; to believe in the heroic makes heroes.”

– Benjamin Disraeli

Treat the attainment of happiness in the same way an entrepreneur would approach building a business — with a vision, plan, goals, and a systematic approach.”

– Ted Leonsis

We never know how high we are
 till we are called to rise;
 And then, if we are true to plan,
 Our statures touch the skies.”

– Emily Dickinson

Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles distinguishes the strong soul from the weak.”

– Thomas Carlyle

Whosoever knows how to fight well is not angry. Whosoever knows how to conquer enemies does not fight them.”

– Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

There is little success where there is little laughter.”

– Andrew Carnegie

Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value.”

– Albert Einstein

The great use of life is to spend it on something that will outlast it.”

– William James

Challenge is a dragon with a gift in its mouth. Tame the dragon and the gift is yours.”

– Noela Evans

Inspiration and genius — one and the same.”

– Victor Hugo

Ripeness is all.”

– William Shakespeare

It is to no purpose to turn away from the real nature of the affair because the honor of its elements excites repugnance.

– Carl von Clausewitz, On War

The music is all around us. All you have to do is listen.”

– August Rush

When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.”

– Jimi Hendrix

The journey is the reward.”

– Greg Norman

Promise me you’ll always remember: You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”

– Christopher Robin to Pooh

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

– Nelson Mandela

History is a relentless master. It has no present, only the past rushing into the future. To try to hold fast is to be swept aside.”

– John F. Kennedy

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.”

– Mark Twain

The person who makes a success of living is the one who see his goal steadily and aims for it unswervingly. That is dedication.”

– Cecil B. DeMille

When I dare to be powerful—to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.”

– Audre Lorde

‎That which grows fast withers as rapidly; that which grows slowly endures.”

– J.G. Holland, novelist

Of course there is no formula for success except perhaps an unconditional acceptance of life and what it brings.”

– Arthur Rubinstein

A great secret of success is to go through life as a man who never gets used up.”

– Albert Schweitzer

Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. 
Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow.”

– Mary Jean Irion

Remove those ‘I want you to like me’ stickers from your forehead
and, instead, place them where they truly will do the most good—on your mirror.”

– Susan Jeffers

The gem cannot be polished without friction; nor man perfected without trials.”

– Chinese proverb

They who give have all things. They who withhold have nothing.”

– Hindu Proverb

You’ve got to be willing to crash and burn. If you’re afraid of failing, you won’t get very far.”

– Steve Jobs

Don’t follow, lead. Don’t copy, create. Don’t start, finish. Don’t sit still, move. Don’t fit in, stand out. Don’t sit quietly, speak up. (Not all the time, sure, but more often.)”

– Seth Godin

If you would create something,
 you must be something.”

– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you were independently wealthy and never had to work a day in your life, would you still choose to spend your time attempting to become a successful entrepreneur?”

– Steven Schussler