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The reason why you see excuses
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The New York Times (1920) “A rocket will never leave the Earth’s atmosphere.” — The New York Times, editorial. 49 years later… “The Times regrets the error.” — The New York Times, July 17, 1969 (the day after Apollo 11 launched) 1952 – Lee de Forest, a legendary and respected engineer, (Father of Radio) “Man will never reach the Moon… Mortals must live and die on Earth.” 1956 – Sir Richard Woolley, Britain’s top astronomer. “Space travel is utter bilge.” — Sir Richard Woolley, Astronomer Royal, 1956 Twelve years after calling it “bilge”, Apollo 8 orbited the Moon and Apollo 11 landed on it. 1957 – Lee de Forest again (Associated Press) (Yes, he doubled down… and was wrong twice.) “They will never reach the Moon.” — Lee de Forest, AP interview, 1957 This was an actual newspaper headline in 1957, by the way. 1957 – Former Astronomer Royal, Sir Harold Spencer Jones “Generations will pass before man ever lands on the Moon… and even then he won’t return.” — Sir Harold Spencer Jones, 1957 Twelve years later: Humans go, land, walk, take samples, take photos, return home, do interviews, and sign autographs. 1958 – Commander George Van Pelt (U.S. Navy). Director of missiles programme. “We are far closer to creating a robot that can think than to sending a man to the Moon.” — U.S. Navy Commander G. Van Pelt, 1958 1958 – John Rinehart, Director, National Bureau of Standards. The top materials expert in the United States “We are a long, long way from manned spaceflight. Not in my lifetime, nor yours.” — John Rinehart, 1958 1959 – Dr. Thomas Gold (cornell), Physicists and Astrophysicists. One of the most famous astrophysicists in the world at the time. “The Moon is covered in a deep layer of dust. Any spacecraft would sink instantly.” — Thomas Gold, 1959 NASA had to model the risk that the lunar module might ‘sink’ into the surface. 1961 – British Interplanetary Society internal memo “A manned lunar landing before 1970 is a dream. We simply do not possess the materials, computing power or propulsion technology.” — British Interplanetary Society, 1961 1964 – The Royal Aeronautical Society (UK) “Even if America reaches the Moon, returning safely will be beyond current engineering capability.” — RAeS panel, 1964 1967 – After the Apollo 1 fire (pessimistic engineering groups) “Human beings will not reach the Moon in this decade. The risks and engineering complexity have now surpassed what is achievable.” — Multiple aerospace safety committees, 1967 1968 – French science magazine Science et Avenir “There is less than a 10% chance the Apollo program will land a man on the Moon before 1975.” — Science et Avenir, 1968 Remember this thing that I’m going to say… “Those who have not done it before will find all the excuses to tell you it's impossible. Next time that you’re in a committee, evaluating options, etc. Think of these words. For lessons on similar mindset, click below. PD 1: If you liked this email, don't keep it in secret and forward it to a friend. They will thank you enormously one day. PD 2: If somebody has sent you this email and you want to receive emails like this yourself, visit vicentevalencia.com PD 3: If you want unsubscribe, click the link below. |
Vicente Valencia
I talk about Personal Growth, Management, Infrastructure and More | 👇JOIN +2k readers 👇
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