“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” ~Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943
“There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” ~Ken Olson, president and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977
“Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?” ~H. M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927
“We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.” ~Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962
“I’m just glad it’ll be Clark Gable who’s falling on his face and not Gary Cooper.” ~Gary Cooper turning down “Gone With the Wind.”
“This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. ~Western Union internal memo, 1876.
“The concept is interesting… but to earn better than a ‘C,’ the idea must be feasible.” ~Yale professor on conceptual paper that became FedEx.
“640K ought to be enough for anybody.” ~Bill Gates, 1981.
“What would I do? I’d shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders.” ~Michael Dell on Apple, 1997.
“Everything that can be invented has been invented.” ~Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.
“The next time you make an assumption, see what happens when you do the opposite.” ~me
Originally composed on Twitter, one quote at a time.
About the Author: Brian Clark is the founding editor of Copyblogger, and co-founder of Teaching Sells and Lateral Action.
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67 comments... add one
#1 Dave Navarro → 05.21.08 at 10:03 am
You tell ‘em
#2 JudyA → 05.21.08 at 10:05 am
That is really an eye opener! I’m going to share it!
#3 Tyler @ Building Camelot → 05.21.08 at 10:05 am
Cool idea! I enjoy following you on Twitter - keep it up! Where do you find all these great quotes?
#4 MrCooker → 05.21.08 at 10:05 am
How far off one can be…
#5 Sameer Vasta → 05.21.08 at 10:06 am
Love that last one. A good mantra to live by. Thanks for sharing!
#6 Trey Meier → 05.21.08 at 10:06 am
These are all great quotes! It’s funny looking back at them and wondering, “How could anyone be so naive?”
But I’m sure that most of us have thoughts like these all the time for different situations.
Very inspiring quotes.
#7 Edward Lomax → 05.21.08 at 10:06 am
Great quotes. Makes me think of all the Internet Marketers who do the “Death of…” pitch. In order to promote the next new thing, they try to convince people what they are doing is dead. More often than not, it is alive and well, or not even being used to it’s full potential.
These quotes remind me to keep an open mind and use common sense. There are no absolutes.
#8 LeRoy → 05.21.08 at 10:07 am
Good stuff Brian! I thought of doing the same time for creative writing, will give it a shot
#9 Trisha Cupra, Web Design Watchdog → 05.21.08 at 10:14 am
Never say never, and never say die.
#10 WebSite Design Orange County → 05.21.08 at 10:19 am
I don’t think that many people will see this article since this “Internet” thing really isn’t catching on with the masses.
#11 Hunter Nuttall → 05.21.08 at 10:19 am
I always think the Bill Gates quote seems out of place in lists like these. Don’t you think he meant that 640K was enough for anyone in 1981, and not forever?
#12 Grant D Griffiths → 05.21.08 at 10:21 am
Brian, please don’t take this the wrong way. I follow you on twitter and read your blog daily. So, call me weird or something else. But, I don’t get it. 11 quotes on twitters makes a blog post? “That is really an eye opener!” How is it an eye opener? “Cool idea!” Why is it a cool idea?
Again, I enjoy your blog and the advice you provide on it is great and I use it daily. But, I just don’t get the point.
#13 Brian Clark → 05.21.08 at 10:25 am Copyblogger
The point is that assumptions are creativity killers.
I guess I shouldn’t have assumed everyone would get it.
#14 Bucktowndusty @ FromThePen.com → 05.21.08 at 10:32 am
That Brian Clark…He’ll never get more than 100 subscribers!
#15 Shane Greenhough → 05.21.08 at 10:39 am
Hehehehe.. I absolutely love it!
#16 Trevor Mauch → 05.21.08 at 10:46 am
Hey… where would we be without these peoples comments though? Maybe comments like these actually kill creativity for some… and motivate the heck out of others.
Nice list by the way!
- Trevor
#17 Narayan S S → 05.21.08 at 10:50 am
Was wondering what you were twittering about! Now it makes sense!
#18 Grant D Griffiths → 05.21.08 at 10:52 am
So, did you violate your own rule?
Recovering lawyer here too. I am trying not to think that hard right now when I read something. Part of the 12 step process to recovery.
#19 Jay Hamilton-Roth → 05.21.08 at 11:00 am
I always thought “no” was the creativity killer, and “yes..and” was the creativity enhancer.
#20 Carole DeJarnatt → 05.21.08 at 11:02 am
Great info!
#21 Anima → 05.21.08 at 11:14 am
As a visual artist, I get a lot of this. Thanks for sharing - this is great motivation.
#22 --Deb → 05.21.08 at 11:19 am
Love all the quotes, and am reminded of that famous rejection of Fred Astaire: “Balding, skinny, can dance a little.” Um, yeah, I’d say he could dance a little! One of my favorite little books at home is a volume of famous book rejections–because when you hear how many times hugely-popular writers were rejected before their first break, it’s reassuring. Or something. But, ultimately? You’re right–you’ve got to think outside the box to catch the opportunities floating around. They only count as opportunities if you’re smart enough to spot them.
#23 The Masked Millionaire → 05.21.08 at 11:21 am
If everybody took “no” seriously then nothing would ever happen.
Vision is usually left to people who have very tough skin, no interest in other people’s negative thoughts, and a drive that most of us can not fathom.
Wasn’t it Thomas Edison who had to endure 10,000 failures before he could get the electric light bulb to work. Can you just imagine the amount of people that were telling him to give up and that it will never work.
Live From Las Vegas
The Masked Millionaire
#24 Madalyn Sklar → 05.21.08 at 11:28 am
Awesome!!
#25 Make few assumptions; many validations. → 05.21.08 at 12:15 pm
[...] about it or build upon it. This blog entry, for example, was inspired by an excellent article, “What’s the Ultimate Creativity Killer”, over at the copyblogger [...]
#26 Michelle → 05.21.08 at 12:57 pm
Amen; I love this because it’s incredibly true.
#27 Mark - Creative Journey Cafe → 05.21.08 at 1:00 pm
I love reading those quotes. Especially when they come from “big” names. Thanks!
#28 Tim S → 05.21.08 at 1:20 pm
Bill Gates never said that.
http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/1997/01/1484
#29 Ben → 05.21.08 at 2:06 pm
Thanks for the inspiration! It really got me thinking that I need to reform my methods of analyzing new ideas. I even wrote a blog about it!
http://textrapolate.com/2008/05/make-few-assumptions-many-validations/
#30 Web design and new media Greenville,SC | SpinningSilk Multimedia → 05.21.08 at 2:27 pm
[...] this was brought to mind when reading an article called, What’s the Ultimate Creativity Killer? on Copyblogger.com in which the writer gave some quotes by very famous and influential people who [...]
#31 John T Unger → 05.21.08 at 2:42 pm
One of my favorite personal mantras has always been “There is no no.” I’m all about the yeses and maybes.
#32 John Hoff - eVentureBiz → 05.21.08 at 2:52 pm
Assumptions can be a powerful “tool,” at times.
But other times, they just make you look dumb!
#33 Shari → 05.21.08 at 2:53 pm
This is a stellar collection of quotes. I try to follow the rule “If you think you can’t, do it anyway.” These quotes are great examples of why I should press on.
#34 John Hoff - eVentureBiz → 05.21.08 at 3:42 pm
@ Shari - in my experience, you should try to train yourself to modify that way of thinking.
If your line of thought is “I can’t really do it but I’ll try anyway,” you’re probably not going to be as great a success as you could be.
It’s important to truly believe you can do it right from the start.
One way I have combated the “I’m not sure I can do it” is by writing down that thought the instant I get it and then immediately writing down 2 reason why I can.
After a while, I trained my thought process to do this automatically. It’s like a button that triggers in my head now - my “can’t do” is automatically flipped to, “here’s why I can.”
….just a thought.
#35 Nate Nead → 05.21.08 at 5:40 pm
Imagine if we stopped inventing….sad.
#36 Shaun Connell → 05.21.08 at 6:27 pm
Hehe, nice.
#37 Rosh → 05.21.08 at 6:46 pm
This one will be linked on Friday http://www.prosperousartists.com
Good stuff.
Rosh
http://www.rosh.com
#38 erik → 05.21.08 at 8:07 pm
“i seriously doubt we will run out of oil in the next 50 years”
#39 Evelyn Lim | Attraction Mind Map → 05.21.08 at 8:11 pm
Enjoyed the quotes tremendously! Just proves that Never say “Never”!!
#40 Scott Fox, Author of Internet Riches → 05.21.08 at 8:23 pm
Great stuff, Brian.
And is the hammer picture simply a visual reference to “tools”?
Or were you also sneaking in a reference to one of my favorite expressions used to describe limited thinking: “When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail”?
Looks like most of these speakers were limited by that kind of tunnel vision so that they were correct based on their own limited assumptions, but way wrong when reality/progress forced new assumptions into their industries.
#41 Jack → 05.21.08 at 8:26 pm
If the purpose is to encourage people to persevere, the quotes are useful. If it is to put these guys down for seeing limits that didn’t exist, let he without sin cast the first stone.
Each of these people also had something major to contribute.
#42 Brian Clark → 05.21.08 at 8:28 pm Copyblogger
Jack, I think the purpose is pretty clear.
#43 Carrie → 05.21.08 at 8:42 pm
“Yes, but thats not possible” - So wrong!
#44 Fred Brunel → 05.21.08 at 8:43 pm
Love it.
#45 Chappysmom » Ready to Button → 05.21.08 at 9:28 pm
[...] time you’re thinking to yourself, “That could never work,” take a look at this list of fabulous quotes that prove otherwise. Never assume something won’t work, you never know until you try! (I particularly like the [...]
#46 Punctuality Rules! » Blog Archive » Criticism → 05.21.08 at 9:32 pm
[...] anybody else read Copyblogger today? Brian Clark collected a fantastic group of quotes demonstrating how even the brightest [...]
#47 Sonia Simone → 05.21.08 at 9:58 pm
It is incredibly useful to remember that smart people can be wrong. Especially if they just told you you can’t do something.
#48 Website designer Perth → 05.22.08 at 12:32 am
“Where is all the water coming from”
Noah’s neighbor the skeptic.
#49 liza → 05.22.08 at 12:35 am
This are great quote.. I really like the last one the best..;)
#50 spidro → 05.22.08 at 4:55 am
great quotes this is my favorite “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home”
#51 shoo → 05.22.08 at 5:20 am
Great quotes - this is my favourite, “Wisdom outweighs any wealth” Sophocles
#52 Dawid → 05.22.08 at 7:32 am
Jack, The purpose is pretty clear.
#53 oddpodz → 05.22.08 at 9:58 am
We created a list like this last December to get inspired for the coming year and to fend off some of our known “creativity killers”
Here are two from our list:
#4. “Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.”
-Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.
#5. “Professor Goddard does not know the relation between action and reaction and the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react. He seems to lack the basic knowledge ladled out daily in high schools.”
-1921 New York Times editorial about Robert Goddard’s revolutionary rocket work.
P.S. Nasa has this thing now called the Goddard Space Center
#54 Duh Only → 05.22.08 at 11:54 am
Great Collection of quotes! I always appreciate the inspiration you give. You see what some of these people have said and just go DUH! “Everything that can be invented has been invented.” was said over 100 years ago! There’s a government appointed worker for you.
#55 AskTheAdmin | Karl Gechlik → 05.22.08 at 2:24 pm
HYSTERICAL! I Want to print them up and hang em’ around the office.
#56 When Are You Most Creative? → 05.22.08 at 4:01 pm
[...] The Ultimate Creativity Killer [...]
#57 Creativity Killers | Prosperous Artists Creative Business → 05.23.08 at 7:38 am
[...] http://www.copyblogger.com/creativity-killer [...]
#58 Foovay’s Cauldron » Inaugural Entry → 05.23.08 at 1:34 pm
[...] favorite quote on all my blogs. I love quotes. Today I’ve got an even better page to share - The Ultimate Creativity Killer is an entry over at Copyblogger made up of quotes that, if you believed them you’d just give [...]
#59 Rob → 05.25.08 at 8:19 am
Some fantastic quotes there
Had never heard of them before, so yeah- thanks for sharing!
#60 Patrick Ogenstad → 05.26.08 at 4:03 am
Got me thinking of David Brent from The Office (uk version)
“Don’t assume, it makes an ass out of ‘u’ and me”
#61 Sudarmaji Lamiran → 05.26.08 at 3:16 pm
“whatever you’re thinking of,
do the opposite!” someone says so!
#62 Greenhat Thinking » Blog Archive » The Ultimate Creativity Killer → 05.27.08 at 12:58 am
[...] Click for the blog here. [...]
#63 Killing Creativity « Admirim → 05.29.08 at 2:05 am
[...] has more Tagged with: Apple, Business, computer, Creativity, innovation, Life, telephone, Thoughts [...]
#64 larry phelps → 05.30.08 at 7:16 am
Really good article, I used some of the points in my blog and then put a link to send my reader to your blog.
Thanks for your inspiring writing.
#65 Is Internet Art Diluting True Art? @ TWKM Blog → 05.30.08 at 11:02 am
[...] Before you received public exposure you had a lot of pavement-pounding work ahead of you. You had to find a publisher who was willing to put your work out to the masses. As a songwriter you had to find a publisher, as a writer a publishing house, as a painter a gallery who would be willing to display your work. All along the way you faced rejection, anger, fear, and a lot of other personal emotions for the input that you received about your work. “The painting is too abstract”, “Your plot has been done before”, “Guitar music is on the way out“. [...]
#66 Alle mal mitdenken! Warum die eierlegende Wollmilch-Sau IPTV auf die Sprünge helfen kann » Interactive TV Award → 06.18.08 at 4:17 pm
[...] wahre Irr-Sinn ist hier dokumentiert: Die Liste der „ultimate creativity killers” versammelt ausgewählte Irrtümer der Weltgeschichte. Sie zeigt auch: Ohne all die [...]
#67 Chris → 06.18.08 at 10:33 pm
I still think that this “telephone” has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication.
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