We All Make Mistakes, Some Just Cost More Than Others
We’ve all made mistakes. While some of our mistakes would be considered small in consequences, you’ve likely felt the repercussions of some painful ones as well. We ask all of our new incoming clients to tell us about some of their financial mistakes; it’s part of how we learn to best serve them and it teaches us lessons we can carry on to our other relationships. Our goal, as advisors, is to educated our clients in hopes of helping them avoid those financial mistakes. But, despite the best efforts, mistakes are bound to happen from time to time, and when they happen, it’s nice to know we aren’t alone. So, let’s take a look at some of the most expensive mistakes in history.
In 1999, when NASA used the metric system and the Lockheed Martin engineers used the imperial system, a satellite orbiting Mars missed its mark and is now lost in space, likely forever. The satellite was worth $125 million.
Blockbuster CEO John Antioco was approached by Reed Hastings of Netflix in 2000 with a proposal to join forces, each promoting and helping to build one another. The Blockbuster team turned down the offer and in 2010 filed for bankruptcy. Netflix currently has a market cap of over $275 billion. Could the partnership have saved Blockbuster? We will never know.
In 1962 a producer named Dick Rowe turned down the opportunity to sign a band called The Silver Beatles. Two years later, that same band, The Beatles, had estimated record sales of $50 million. And we all know that just scratches the surface of the incredible success The Beatles went on to be.
In hopes of competing with the growing popularity of Pepsi, in 1985, Coke released New Coke. New Coke was sweeter in taste and unfortunately fell flat on its face. After deciding to bring back the original Coke, the company was left with $30 million in unsold New Coke and a loss of $4 million on development of the wasted product.
For $800 in 1978, Ron Wayne (designer of the first Apple logo) sold his 10% stake in Apple. That same 10% stake is worth about $230 billion today.
So, the next time you make a financial mistake, know that you are in good company. Even the most brilliant of minds make costly mistakes from time to time. The important thing is that we learn from our mistakes, and if we can learn from other people’s mistakes, even better! Consult with your financial advisor when it comes to important money decisions, that’s what they’re there for.
*All photos used were sourced from Unsplash
The information has been obtained from sources considered to be reliable, but we do not guarantee that the material is accurate or complete.
