Clark Gable, The Atomic Bomb and Muscle Development

You’re about to embark on a new direction or take a leap with a new idea or project. You’re full of excitement and optimism. And then it happens. The naysayers deliver some “practical advice” that gives voice to your own doubt and fear, and you use it as “evidence” (or should I say an excuse?) for not moving in a new direction. Well, the next time someone reveals their own limited perspective to you, remember these gems of wisdom:

Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value.
-Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre

Everything that can be invented has been invented.
-Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899

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 in 1859

The bomb will never go off. I speak as an expert in explosives.
-Admiral William Leahy, U.S. Atomic Bomb Project

You want to have consisent 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.
-Response to Arthur Jones, who solved the “unsolvable” problem by inventing Nautilus weight training equipment

I’m glad it will be Clark Gable who’s falling on his face and not Gary Cooper.
-Gary Cooper on his decision no to take the leading role in Gone With the Wind

from The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Making Money Through Intuition by Nancy Rosanoff.

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