"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons"
Popular Mechanics, 1949
"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943
"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."
Editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall,
1957
"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., 1977
"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communications. The device is inherently of no value to us."
Western Union internal memo, 1876
"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 t his urgings
for investment in the radio in the 1920s.
"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)
"Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?"
H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 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."
"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 os starting Mrs. Fields'
Cookies.
"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out."
Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962
"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible."
Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.
"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" pads.
"Professor Goddard does not know the relation between action and reaction and the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react. He seems to lack the basic knowledge ladled out daily in high schools."
1921 New York Times editorial about Robert Goddard's
revolutionary rocket work.
"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, 1859.
"The bomb will never go off. I speak as an expert in explosives."
Admiral William Leahy, US Atomic Bomb Project.
"This fellow Charles Lindberg will never make it. He's doomed."
Harry Guggenheim, Millionaire aviation enthusiast.
"Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau."
Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University,
1929
"Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value."
Marechal Fedinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole
Superieure de Guerre.
"Man will never reach the moon regardless of all future scientific advances."
Dr. Lee De Forest, inventor the vacuum tube and father
of television.
"Everything that can be invented has been invented."
Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, US Office of Patents,
1899
"Ray Dennis of Coldwell Banker can help me with my real estate."
The only true prediction on this page.
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Ray Dennis is a real estate broker, licensed to do business in the State of Iowa as a broker/associate with Coldwell Banker Mid-America Group Realtors with it’s office in West Des Moines, Iowa. Copyright ©1998, 1999 RayDen Enterprises. All rights reserved.