CopyCat Quotes

“Ideation + Soak Time + 3B’s = Eureka!”
― Jen Fraser, CopyCat: How to Escape Status Quo Thinking and Lead the Field

“CopyCats are Critics — they love enforcing rules, so they keep on doing things the way they’ve always been done. Creatives are Creators — not just consumers. Their original ideas bring wealth to nations!”
― Jen Fraser, CopyCat: How to Escape Status Quo Thinking and Lead the Field

“CopyCats are Conformists — both conventional and predictable. They follow traditions and typically do what’s expected of them. Creatives are Contrarians — they’re not rude by default; they just know all traditions were once original; so why not make new ones?”
― Jen Fraser, CopyCat: How to Escape Status Quo Thinking and Lead the Field

“CopyCats are Followers — they’re often playing catch-up, and can find themselves trailing behind, losing out. Creatives are true Leaders — they are trailblazers, the sole source of human progress, which all of society benefits from!”
― Jen Fraser, CopyCat: How to Escape Status Quo Thinking and Lead the Field

“CopyCats use Other People’s Ideas (OPI) and often feel deeply frustrated at the overwhelming competition they face. Creatives only compete with themselves, as their original ideas help them to stand out in a sea of sameness.”
― Jen Fraser, CopyCat: How to Escape Status Quo Thinking and Lead the Field

“We must stop blaming school teachers for single-handedly crushing our kids’ creative souls.”
― Jen Fraser, CopyCat: How to Escape Status Quo Thinking and Lead the Field

“Life is a series of projects, with each more ambitious than the last.”
― Jen Fraser, CopyCat: How to Escape Status Quo Thinking and Lead the Field

“Mastery is a journey, and mastery without progress is impossible. So it follows that: inaction is the enemy of greatness.”
― Jen Fraser, CopyCat: How to Escape Status Quo Thinking and Lead the Field

“Only nine years before the Wright brothers’ famous first flight, Hargrave lifted himself 4.9 metres (16 feet) off the ground in a swing attached to a series of connected box kites that he designed. When a drawing of this momentous feat was circulated in newspapers around the globe, the starting gun was fired and the race for powered flight began in earnest!”
― Jen Fraser, CopyCat: How to Escape Status Quo Thinking and Lead the Field

“Innovative improvements are only incremental; while surprising and ingenious new inventions spawn entire industries, bringing wealth to nations.”
― Jen Fraser, CopyCat: How to Escape Status Quo Thinking and Lead the Field

“When we finally begin to see the entire modern world around us as a kind of living museum of ideas, we also begin to see the world as Einstein once did.”
― Jen Fraser, CopyCat: How to Escape Status Quo Thinking and Lead the Field

“98% of us are full-time CopyCats — the rest are part-timers, picked on for being ‘slackers’.”
― Jen Fraser, CopyCat: How to Escape Status Quo Thinking and Lead the Field

“The Great Question: “Dear inventor, how’s it done — how can I come up with genius ideas all of my very own?”
― Jen Fraser, CopyCat: How to Escape Status Quo Thinking and Lead the Field

“Originality cracks saturation.”
― Jen Fraser, CopyCat: How to Escape Status Quo Thinking and Lead the Field

“Traditions stifle imagination. They are the invisible destroyer of dreams.”
― Jen Fraser, CopyCat: How to Escape Status Quo Thinking and Lead the Field

“Knowledge comes from imagination, observation, action, and experience; and science is a time-honoured method for turning guesses and hunches into verifiable facts; into shiny new pieces of knowledge.”
― Jen Fraser, CopyCat: How to Escape Status Quo Thinking and Lead the Field

“Originality (also known as CQ or Creative Quotient) can in fact be improved upon, to help make us much smarter in other ways… Since originality can be developed and enhanced, this means that the teachings inside this book can actually help you become more intelligent, by boosting your CQ.
Put simply: CQ > IQ.”
― Jen Fraser, CopyCat: How to Escape Status Quo Thinking and Lead the Field

“Genius is the ability to connect the unconnected (the entirely unrelated), to form new ideas, which are never-before-seen combinations.”
― Jen Fraser, CopyCat: How to Escape Status Quo Thinking and Lead the Field

“When you ask an inventor for advice around finding you own genius ideas, their lack of insight into what the pieces of the puzzle are, and how they all fit together, means that they really can’t help you! Only you can help yourself, and the Outthinx Method is the ultimate DIY exercise for achieving this. The Method gives us the keys to unlock our own, unique genius. The Method makes locksmiths of us all.”
― Jen Fraser, CopyCat: How to Escape Status Quo Thinking and Lead the Field

“We reverse engineer genius ideas, by creating our own chain of linked thoughts, starting with an idea and working our way back to what we imagine the original problem might have been.”
― Jen Fraser, CopyCat: How to Escape Status Quo Thinking and Lead the Field

“Give someone a fish; they’re fed for a day.
Teach them to fish; they’re fed for life.
Show them how to seek & solve problems;
and the whole world is their oyster.”
― Jen Fraser, CopyCat: How to Escape Status Quo Thinking and Lead the Field

“Without problems, life loses all meaning. That’s why problem-solving and originality are future-proof skills. They’re part of who we are as humans.”
― Jen Fraser, CopyCat: How to Escape Status Quo Thinking and Lead the Field

“Problems are the root of all Value.”
― Jen Fraser, CopyCat: How to Escape Status Quo Thinking and Lead the Field

“You don’t win the Nobel Prize for following the rules. So be unique. Be a rule-breaker.”
― Jen Fraser, CopyCat: How to Escape Status Quo Thinking and Lead the Field

“Genius ideas are surprising ideas.”
― Jen Fraser, CopyCat: How to Escape Status Quo Thinking and Lead the Field

“The single greatest threat to human progress isn’t a lack of original ideas; it’s our obsession with familiarity — with status quo thinking.”
― Jen Fraser, CopyCat: How to Escape Status Quo Thinking and Lead the Field

“Money grows on Idea Trees.”
― Jen Fraser, CopyCat: How to Escape Status Quo Thinking and Lead the Field

“Certainty kills ingenuity. The more certain we are, the less room we leave for discovering hidden opportunities.”
― Jen Fraser, CopyCat: How to Escape Status Quo Thinking and Lead the Field

“Bad ideas can lead to brilliant ideas.”
― Jen Fraser, CopyCat: How to Escape Status Quo Thinking and Lead the Field

“The enemy of opportunity is certainty.”
― Jen Fraser, CopyCat: How to Escape Status Quo Thinking and Lead the Field