Stupid bold remarks on bold ideas

Is belief in the head of the believer? How many countless times have you heard “no,” “not possible” and “can’t be done”. How many growth making, profit generating, game changing ideas have been felled by the belief of “no”?

Imagine yourself contemplating a future scenario. Are we programmed to be optimistic without dereliction about the innovations of the future, especially now that 70% of what was shown in the original Star Trek series is a daily happening? Or like these folks comments, do we resist the option of change for what we know?

The future favors the Bold. Luckily for all us we’ve witnessed the benefits of the innovations these people deracinate:

“Man will never reach the moon regardless of all future scientific advances.”
— Dr. Lee DeForest, “Father of Radio & Grandfather of Television.”

“The bomb will never go off. I speak as an expert in explosives.”
— Admiral William Leahy , US Atomic Bomb Project

“There is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the atom.”
— Robert Millikan, Nobel Prize in Physics, 1923

“Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.”
— Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949

“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.”
–The 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.

“640K ought to be enough for anybody.”
— Bill Gates, 1981

“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, 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 to 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.)

“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 of 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” Notepads.

“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 in 1859.

“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 Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre , France .

“Everything that can be invented has been invented,”
— Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, US Office of Patents, 1899.

“The super computer is technologically impossible. It would take all of the water that flows over Niagara Falls to cool the heat generated by the number of vacuum tubes required.”
— Professor of Electrical Engineering, New York University

“Louis Pasteur’s theory of germs is ridiculous fiction.”
— Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse , 1872

“The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon”
— Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon to Queen Victoria 1873.

“There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.”
— Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977

I wonder what current statements from the last decade would be the modern version of this plunder?