2. “Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil?
You're crazy.”
-- Workers whom Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to drill for oil, 1859
3. “Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction.”
-- Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872
4. “The telephone has too many short comings to be seriously considered as a means
of communication. The device is of no inherent value to us.”
- A memo at Western Union, 1876.
“The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not.
We have plenty of messenger boys.”
-- Sir William Preece, chief engineer of the British Post Office, 1876.
5. “Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.”
-- Lord Kelvin, President, Royal Society, 1895
“Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value.”
-- Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Prof. of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre.
“There will never be a bigger plane built.”
-- A Boeing engineer, after first flight of 247, a twin engine plane that holds ten people.
6. “The horse is here to stay but the automobile is only a
novelty – a fad.”
-- President of Morgan Savings Bank to lawyers of Ford Motor Co., 1903.
7. “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 to urgings for investment in the radio,
1920s.
8. “Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?”
- H. M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927.
“The cinema is little more than a fad. It’s canned drama. What
audiences really want to see is flesh and blood on the stage.”
- Charlie Chaplin, 1916.
9. “A rocket will never be able to leave the Earth’s
atmosphere.”
-- New York Times, 1936
10. “I think there is a world market for may be five
computers.”
-- Thomas Watson, Chairman, IBM, 1943
“There is no reason anyone would want a computer in
their home.”
-- Ken Olson, President, DEC, 1977
11. “We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the
way out.”
-- Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.
12. “With over 50 foreign cars already on sale here, the Japanese auto
industry isn't likely to carve out a big slice of the U.S. market.”
-- Business Week, August 2, 1968.
13. “Hey, we don't need you. You haven't got through college
yet.”
– HP Execs to Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak's personal computer
14. “While theoretically and technically television may be feasible,
commercially and financially it is an impossibility.”
-- Lee DeForest, inventor.
