On the morning of the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte smugly assured his generals, “I tell you Wellington is a bad general, the English are bad soldiers; we will settle this matter by lunchtime.”
Then, around 100 years later, just before the Titanic was about to embark on its maiden journey, one passenger asked a ship’s agent for extra insurance on some valuables in her luggage. The agent replied, “Ridiculous. This boat’s unsinkable.”
Captain Smith himself was asked about the safety of the Titanic. He answered – “I cannot imagine any condition which would cause a ship to founder. I cannot conceive of any vital disaster happening to this vessel. Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that.”
Then, after the ship had struck the iceberg, a passenger asked her employer if they should do something about it. He replied, “Go back to bed. This ship is unsinkable.”
Move forward another 87 years and consider the example of Enron, and the e-mail that Kenneth Lay, then the CEO, sent to his employees in 2001. He declared, “Our performance has never been stronger, our business model has never been more robust. We have the finest organization in American business today.” That was less than four months before Enron filed for bankruptcy.
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