Conversation for No Possibility Abound

Anyone who starts to speak a new possibility needs to be aware that they are, most likely, threatening the status quo. In all likelihood they will set in motion an interesting response among many of their listeners - usually prefaced with yeabut:

• Yeabut we tried that before - won't work
• Yeabut you'll never get "them" to go for it
• Yeabut...
  

When all else fails for the yeabutters, it is time to bring in the "experts" whose conversation for no possibility is listened to by virtue of their position, status, reputation, or simply the aura of authority they have created for themselves.

My recommendation, be informed by "experts" listen to their perspective respectfully, thoughtfully, and then be shaped by your vision, commitments and intentions, not their opinions.

Why? Because "experts" opinions are often just plain wrong. Here are some famous (among my favorite) examples:

1. Grover Cleveland, 1905. "Sensible and responsible women do not want to vote."
2. Robert Millikan, 1923, Nobel prize winner in physics. "Man will never tap the power of the atom."
3. Harry M. Warner, 1924, President of Warner Brothers. "Who the hell wants to hear actors talk."
4. Charles H. Duell, 1899, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents. "Everything that can be invented has been invented."
5. Lord Kelvin, 1895, President of The Royal Society, London. "Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible."
6. Tris Speeker, 1924, Baseball Hall of Fame. "Babe Ruth made a big mistake when he gave up pitching."
7. In 1878 Western Union rejected the rights to the telephone with the statement, "What use could the company make of an electrical toy?"
8. Rutherford B. Hayes, U.S. President 1877-1881. About the telephone ... "An amazing invention, but who would ever want to use one?"
9. In Columbus's time, the advisory committee to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain wrote, "So many centuries after the Creation, it is unlikely that anyone could find hitherto unknown lands of any value."
10. In a 1902 article in Harper's Weekly proclaimed, "The actual building of roads devoted to motor cars is not for the near future in spite of many rumors to that effect."
11. A letter to Paul Klee dated November 21, 1910, gently complained, "Your works have been on show at our gallery since November 15. We are obliged to note, however, that the great majority of visitors expressed very unfavorable opinions about your works, and several well-known, respected personalities asked us to stop displaying them."
12. In 1945 Vannevar Bush, a presidential advisor, warned, "The bomb will never go off, and I speak as an expert in explosives."
13. In 1958 British astronomer Royal Dr. R. Wooley pronounced, "Space travel is utter bilge."
14. "The phonograph ... is not of any commercial value." Thomas Edison remarking on his own invention to his assistant Sam Insull, 1880.
15. "Flight by machines heavier than air is impractical and insignificant, if not utterly impossible." Simon Newcomb, an astronomer of some note, 1902.
16. "It is an idle dream to imagine that ... automobiles will take the place of railways in the long distance movement of ... passengers." American Road Congress, 1913.
17. "I think there is a world market for about five computers." Thomas J. Watson, Chairman of IBM, 1943.
18. "The odds are that the United States will not be able to honor the 1970 manned-lunar-landing date set by Mr. Kennedy." New Scientist, April 30, 1964.
19. "There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their home." Ken Olsen, President of Digital Equipment Corporation, 1977.
20. "Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons." Popular Mechanics, forecasting advance of science, 1949.
21. "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.
22. "But what...is it good for?" Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, commenting on the microchip, 1968.
23. “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 memo, 1876.
24. “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 1920’s.
25. “A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports say that America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make.” Responses to Debbie Field’s idea of starting the Mrs Fields Cookies business.
26. “We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.” Decca Recording Company rejecting the Beatles, 1962.
27. “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 adhesive for 3M “Post-it” Notepads.
28. “So we went to Atari and said, ‘we’ve got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts and what do you think about funding us?’ Or we’ll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we’ll come and work for you.’ They said, ‘No.’ Then we went to Hewlett Packard; they said, ‘we don’t need you. You haven’t got through college yet’.” Apple Computer founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get Atari and H-P interested in his and Steve Wozniak’s personal computer.
29. “Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You’re crazy.” Drillers whom Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil, 1859.
30. “Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.” Irving Fisher, Economics professor, Yale University, 1929.
31. “Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value.” Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre.
32. “Louis Pasteur’s theory of germs is ridiculous fiction.” Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872.
33. “The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon.” Sir John Eric Ericksen, British Surgeon, appointed Surgeon Extraordinary to Queen Victoria, 1873.
34. “640K ought to be enough for anybody.” Bill Gates of Microsoft, 1981.
35. “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.)
36. “You want to have consistent and uniform muscle development across all muscles? It can’t be done. It’s just a fact of life. You just have to accept inconsistent muscle development as an unalterable condition of weight training.” Response to Arthur Jones, who solved the “unsolvable” problem by inventing Nautilus.
37. "Cable & Wireless (a UK telecoms company) was founded over 125 years ago to link London with its colonies, laying the first submarine cable to Honk Kong; this it did despite warnings from some scientists that water pressure at oceanic depths would squeeze the electrons out of the wire." Fortune August 5, 1995. P.18.
    

For even more “expert” opinions read The Expert Speaks: The Definitive Compendium of Authoritative Misinformation, Christopher Cerf.

Collected by The London Perret Roche Group LLC