Consider these statements by "so called" experts:
- "Babe Ruth made a big mistake when he gave up pitching" Tris Speaker, 1927.
- "I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and not Gary Cooper." -Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in "Gone With The Wind."
- "Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" -H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927.
- "We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." -Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.
- "A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports say America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make." -Response to Debbi Fields' idea of starting Mrs. Fields' Cookies.
- "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." - Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977.
- "The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a 'C,' the idea must be feasible." -A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith's paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. (Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.) .
- This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." -Western Union internal memo, 1876.
- "You should change your major to Phys Ed, the Business School is too tough for you" - A professor's response to Lee Kemp when he was seeking help in one of his business classes (Lee Kemp not only earned a Bachelors Degree in Business but a Masters of Business Degree (MBA) 1977.
- "The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?" -David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s.
- "Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible." -Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.
- "The United States will never beat the Russians in Greco Roman Wrestling" - The general sentiment and consensus of "so called" wrestling experts of our day (The United States did the impossible, and won the team title in the 2008 World Greco Roman Wrestling Championships, in Baku Azerbaijan, by beating the Russian Team.)
- "If I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said you can't do this." -Spencer Silver on the work that led to the unique adhesives for 3-M "Post-It" Notepads.
- "So we went to Atari and said, 'Hey, we've got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we'll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we'll come work for you.' And they said, 'No.' So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, 'Hey, we don't need you. You haven't got through college yet.'" -Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get Atari and H-P interested in his and Steve Wozniak's personal computer.
- "You want to have consistent and uniform muscle development across all of your muscles? It can't be done. It's just a fact of life. You just have to accept inconsistent muscle development as an unalterable condition of weight training." -Response to Arthur Jones, who solved the "unsolvable" problem by inventing Nautilus.
- "Don't set your goal that high, you'll only be disappointed when you don't reach it" - A coaches response to Lee Kemp's goal of wanting to be the first 4-time NCAA Champion 1974 (a split referees decision in overtime prevented Lee Kemp from achieving that goal).
- "Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy." -Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859.
- "Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau." -Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929 (Before the great stock market of 1930).
- "Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value." -Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre.
- "640K ought to be enough for anybody." - Bill Gates, 1981.
- "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." -Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
- "But what ... is it good for?" -Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.
- "I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year." -The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957.
I think you get the picture...
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