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Some may have been brilliant, but few can really see what the future holds. Here are some famous quotes from very smart people who unfortuntely did not see the writing on the wall...
"Man will never reach the moon regardless of all future scientific advances."
- - Admiral William Leahy , US Atomic Bomb Project
-- Robert Millikan, Nobel Prize in Physics, 1923
-- Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949
-- Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943
--The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957
-- Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.
-- Bill Gates, 1981 -- Western Union internal memo, 1876.
-- David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s.
-- 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.)
--Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in "Gone With The Wind."
-- Response to Debbi Fields' idea of starting Mrs. Fields' Cookies.
-- Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.
-- Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.
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.
-- Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859.
-- Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University , 1929.
-- Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre , France .
-- Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, US Office of Patents, 1899.
-- Professor of Electrical Engineering, New York University
-- the head of IBM, refusing to back the idea, forcing the inventor to found Xerox.
-- Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse , 1872
-- Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon-Extraordinary to Queen Victoria 1873.
-- Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977 |
