It’s dated now, but the decision to use the poem/short essay “To the Crazy Ones” was sheer genius, especially at a time when the concept of using a consumer device could be a stamp of individuality, a mark of one’s creativity, was a novel idea. This came in 1997 at a time when to use an Apple computer took some courage, as it was so often derided as either too expensive or not having any good uses. The idea and text were created at the ad agency Chiat/Day , with Rob Siltanen and Ken Segall coming up with words.
Read it again, especially for you college students starting your fall term. Don’t simply fall prey to the myth that success somehow only resides in dollar figures. Don’t fear walking the rarely trodden path.
To The Crazy Ones
Here’s to the crazy ones.
The misfits. The rebels.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They’re not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can praise them, disagree with them,
quote them, disbelieve them,
glorify them or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do
is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They invent. They imagine. They heal.
They explore. They create. They inspire.
They push the human race forward.
Maybe they have to be crazy.
How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art?
Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written?
Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?
We make tools for these kinds of people.
While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world,
are the ones who do.
Think Different