“It’s always impossible until done.” Nelson Mandela, a quote that is common yet no one truly believes it.
Whenever you try to attempt something that goes against conventional thinking or way of doing things, everyone will tell you that it’s impossible and it can’t be done.
So many start-ups and great ideas die a premature death because they weren’t the conventional way of doing things.
In the late 1800’s when word came out that Thomas Edison was working on the lightbulb not everyone was sold and some rejected the idea.
A British Parliament Committee noted in 1878 that Edison’s light bulb was “good enough for our Transatlantic friends… but unworthy of the attention of practical or scientific men.”
Similarly, a chief engineer for the British Post Office said that the “subdivision of the electric light is an absolute ignis fatuus.” In other words, a fairy tale. A sham.
In 1911, Ferdinand Foch, a French general and Allied Commander during World War I, said, “Airplanes are interesting scientific toys, but they are of no military value.”A French General during World War I called Aeroplanes.
And for years before Tesla, the majority of the public and car manufacturers said electric cars wouldn’t work. Yet again this was false and as of 2020 Tesla which has a market capitalization that is bigger than GM & Ford combined has sold over a million electric cars.
2.2 million electric cars were sold last year and continue to see a growth in sales while other vehicle categories struggle during the global pandemic.
The world is meant to move forward, progress, and change, conventional thinking becomes a thing of the past. New and better ways become the new norm, until they not.
Sources: Insider.com, Insideevs.com