Wrong Predictions

Famous Wrong Predictions:

In the world of art & entrepreneurship be encouraged… when it comes to innovation no one really knows  anything…

1. “Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You’re crazy.”  Opponents to Edwin L Drakes wrongly predicting his plan to drill for oil in 1849 would fail.

2. “We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.” Decca Recording Co. infamous rejection of the Beatles in 1962; wrong again.

3. “I’m just glad it’ll be Clark Gable who’s falling on his face not Gary Cooper.”  A famous wrong prediction from Gary Cooper as he decides not to take the leading role in “Gone With The Wind.”

4. “Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?”  H.M. Warner on having talking in movies? Warner Brothers, 1927.

5. “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 HP interested in his and Steve Wozniak’s personal computer.

6. “You’d better learn secretarial skills or else get married.” – Modeling agency,wrongly rejecting Marilyn Monroe in 1944.

7. This is one of my favorite wrong prediction“Everything that can be invented has been invented.” Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.

Does anybody know anything? These Wrong Predictions suggest otherwise…

 

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  • http://ascensionforyou.wordpress.com Ascension For You

    Ha ha ….loved this Geoff… reminds of all those publishers who turned away Watership Down….Harry Potter etc… that said, everything has its time. Not to get all ‘relgious’ but i guess real opportunities present themselves to the right people when they are meant to. Also, God doesnt make mistakes…… cheers Dave

  • Merrick Taylor

    Hi Geoff. I love these kinds of quotes. Here’s a couple more:

    “The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys.”
    - Sir William Preece (1834-1913), Welsh electrical engineer and inventor.

    “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

    “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.”
    - Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp. (bought out by Compaq in the late 1990s, in turn bought out by Hewlett Packard).
    :)

    • geofftalbot

      These are awesome Merrick!!!!

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  • Lynne Holder

    “The horse is here to stay, but the automobile is only a novelty.” –
    President of Michigan Savings Bank, 1903, advising Henry Ford’s lawyer
    not to invest in the Ford Motor Company.

    I have to admit, there have been lots of times that I wish that one had come true. :)

     

  • http://sevensentences.com Geoff Talbot

    That is awesome Lynne… Clearly you are a lover of the horse!

    • Lynne Holder

      God’s most beautiful creatures–love them!

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