Were you ever belittled by a schoolteacher? Albert Einstein was.
Has your confidence been dented by job rejections? If it has then bear in mind that Apple founder Steve Jobs was rejected by Hewlett-Packard.
Were you ever put off a business idea by an authoritative source? Even the seer of the business world, Business Week, can get its predictions spectacularly wrong.
Check out these wildly inaccurate predictions, verbal gaffes and shocking pronouncements.
"$640m should be enough for anyone"
“Theoretically, television may be feasible, but I consider it an impossibility, a development we should waste little time dreaming about.”
Lee de Forest, inventor of the cathode ray tube, in 1926.
The television was invented in the end and now people waste a lot of time watching it instead of dreaming about it.
“People can have the Model T in any colour – so long as it’s black.”
Henry Ford issues a fait accompli. He had to relent in 1925 because of the world’s insatiable desire for colour.
“With over 50 foreign cars already on sale here, the Japanese auto industry isn’t likely to carve out a big slice of the US market.”
Business Week, 1958.
“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.”
Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
You think wrong.
“$640k should be enough for anyone.”
Bill Gates, 1981.
“We don’t need you – you haven’t got through college yet.”
Hewlett-Packard’s rejection of Apple Computers founder Steve Jobs’ job application.
If you can’t join them – set up your own company and beat them! Take note, BusinessInACan.com readers!
“It doesn’t matter what he does, he will never amount to anything.”
Einstein’s teacher to his father, 1895.
Must have been his PE teacher.
“We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.”
Decca Recording Co rejecting the Beatles, demonstrating a slight lack of foresight.
“It will be years – not in my time – before a woman will become Prime Minister.”
Margaret Thatcher, 1974.
Did she genuinely believe this?
“We don’t pay taxes – only the little people pay taxes.”
Leona Helmsley, US businesswoman sentenced in 1992 to four years in prison and fined $7.1m for tax evasion.
