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• "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 rejecting a proposal 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 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) before rejecting proposal for movies with sound in 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 to reject 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."-- Rejection letter to Debbi Fields' idea of starting Mrs. Fields' Cookies.
• "Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau." --Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929, right before the 1929 Stock Market Crash.
• "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.
• "You want to have consistent and uniform muscle development across all of your 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." --Rejection letter to Arthur Jones, who invented the Nautilus Fitness Machine.
• "640K ought to be enough for anybody." -- Bill Gates, 1981, rejecting proposal for larger computer memory.
• "Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons." --Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949.
• "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."-- Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
• "Everything that can be invented has been invented." --Charles H. Duell,Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.
• "Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value."--Marshall Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre.
• "Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction".--Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872.
• "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 in rejecting a book on data processing, 1957.
• "I do not believe the introduction of motor-cars will ever affect the riding of horses" -- Mr Scott-Montague, MP, in 1903 in the United Kingdom (I owe this to quote Ben Broadbent)
• "I am perfectly convinced the role of the cavalry is as important today as it has been throughout the ages" --Major Shaw, MP, in 1936 in the United Kingdom (I owe this quote to Ben Broadbent)
• "I do not think it would be practicable to introduce pedestrian crossings in London" -- Colonel Ashley, MP, Roads Minister in Britain, in 1927 (I owe this quote to Ben Broadbent)
• "This is typical Berlin hot air. The product is worthless" (Letter sent by Heinrich Dreser, head of Bayer's Pharmacological Institute, rejecting Felix Hoffmann's invention: Aspirin; At that point, Bayer stood by its "star" pain killer called "diacetylmorphine".   This alternative product was said to make factory workers feel animated and "heroic", which is why Bayer decided to call it by an appropriate name: heroin.  Later on, it was decided that heroin had "funny" side effects so it was taken out of the market.  Bayer's chairman eventually intervened to overrule Dreser's decision and accept Aspirin as Bayer's main pain killer. Today, HUMANITY SWALLOWS 10 BILLION TABLETS OF ASPIRIN EACH YEAR!!!   Quoted in the Financial Times on February 13th, 1999. I owe this quote to Sergio Negrete Cardenas of Mexico).
• "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 (I owe this quote to Yasemin Urkmez).
• "The abdomen, the chest and the brain will forever be shut from instrusion of the wise and humane surgeon." --Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon-Extraordinary to Queen Victoria 1873 (I owe this quote to Yasemin Urkmez).
• "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." --Ken Olsen, pres., chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977(I owe this quote to Yasemin Urkmez).
• "So we went o Atari and said, 'Hey, 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 work for you.' And they said, 'No.' So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, 'Hey we don't need you. You haven't got through college yet.'" --Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get Atari and H-P inetersted in his and Steve Wozniak's personal computer.
• "Look, I'll talk to you as a father: If I were you, I would go back to Spain and I would get married because you do not have a chance to make it. You have a nice voice, but the world of opera is more than voice. It is a tough world full of difficulties, and I do not think you are capable of overcoming them" -- comments made by a famous italian opera director rejecting Montserrat Caballé after her first audition in Rome, quoted in her autobiography published in 1990 (she never revealed the name of this nice man). After this, Montserrat Caballé went on to become one of the greatest divas of the XXth century. (I owe this quote to Sílvia Estrada).

 

• "Who the hell wants to copy a document on plain paper???!!!" -- 1940 Rejection Letter to Chester Carlson, inventor of the XEROX machine (Note: In fact, over 20 companies rejected his "useless" idea between 1939 and 1944. Even the National Inventors Council dismissed it. Today, the Rank Xerox Corporation has an annual revenue in the range of one billion dollars.)