“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, 1878
“Heavier-than-air machines are impossible.”
– Lord Kelvin, President, Royal Society, 1895
“Everything that can be invented has been invented.”
– Charles Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899
“Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value.”
– Marshall Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Paris, 1902
“The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?”
– David Sarnoff’s advertising associates, responding to his urging for investment in the radio in the 1920’s
“Who the XXX wants to hear actors talk?”
– Harry M. Warner, Warner Brothers Film Studios, 1927
“Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.”
– Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929
“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.”
– Thomas Watson, Chairman of IBM Corporation, 1943
“The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a ‘C’, the idea must be feasible.”
– Yale University Management Professor, in response to Fred Smith’s paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service, 1957
(Smith went on to found Federal Express Corporation)
“We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.”
– Decca Recording Company, in rejecting the Beatles, 1962
“There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.”
– Ken Olson, President and Founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977
“640 kilobytes ought to be enough computer memory for anybody.”
– Bill Gates, Chairman and Founder of Microsoft Corporation, 1981
Are you a change agent?
