Creative ideas can come from anyone, anywhere, at any time. Those ideas often involve taking a risk or challenging conventional thinking. And that can be daunting to those who are perfectly satisfied with the status quo.
But in my view, creativity is a trait that should be celebrated and encouraged. Innovation never happened by supporting the same old, same old.
We can't imagine living without the benefits reaped from some bold, creative thinking. Fortunately, determined innovators prevailed, often in the face of mass indifference or mockery. But here are a few prime examples of what might not have happened if folks listened to the naysayers.
"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us," according to a Western Union internal memo dated 1876.
Silent-film star Charlie Chaplin said, "Moving pictures need sound as much as Beethoven symphonies need lyrics."
An engineer at IBM in 1968 commented on the microchip, "But what is it good for?"
The aeronautical engineering department of Cambridge University's response to Frank Whittle, after viewing his pioneering designs for the jet engine, "Very interesting, Whittle, my boy, but it will never work."
"Television won't be able to hold on to any market it captures after the first six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night," said pioneering American movie executive Darryl F. Zanuck.
