I have a friend that sells Rolex watches for a major dealer up here in Seattle. During a recent conversation, I was reminded of a story about Swiss watches I read several years ago in a book entitled Paradigms: The Business of Discovering the Future. The following is an excerpt.

“The Swiss failed to patent or market the quartz watch, even though they invented it, because they couldn’t shift paradigms. They couldn’t shift paradigms because they couldn’t see that there would be a market for another kind of watch besides the kind they’d been successfully making and selling for generations. The Japanese made all the money from the quartz watch because they didn’t have an old paradigm that locked them into a way of thinking that precluded patenting and marketing quartz watches.”

Paradigms serve as a pattern or a model – a set of belief systems or rules that people adopt in order to view their world. How do  our paradigms that become limited beliefs hold us back?  You’ll have to answer that question yourself — it’s beyond the purview of this article.

For me, discovery is a powerful thing.  I think we should be open to new possibilities, innovations, and ways to improve our lives and the lives of others.   Just for fun check this out. Even the greatest business, sports, and scientific minds have struggled with limiting beliefs.

The same year the 1927 Mercury, pair of dimes were minted, Harry Warner wondered who the hell wants to hear actors talk!  You may recognize a few of the names.

1. “The Phonograph … is not of any commercial value. –” Thomas Edison remarking on his own invention to his assistant in 1880.

2. “There is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the atom.” — Robert Millikan, Nobel Prize winner in Physics, 1920.

3. “Babe Ruth made a big mistake when he gave up pitching.” — Tris Speaker, 1921

4. “Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?”  — Harry Warner, Warner Brothers Pictures, 1927

5. “I think there is a world market for about five computers.” — Thomas J. Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

6. “The odds are now that the United States will not be able to honor the 1970 manned-lunar-landing date set by Mr. Kennedy.” — New Scientists,  April 30th 1964

7. “There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their home.”  — Ken Olsen, president of Digital Equipment Corporation, 1977