The Top 10 worst investment mistakes since 1876 ! Or WHY the human nature have to be trained to make good decisions

1. Ronald Wayne sells 10% of Apple for $800 (now worth $300 billion)

Did you know Apple originally had 3 co-founders? Jobs and Wozniak invited Ronald Wayne to join them as the “adult in the room.” (He was 41, the Steves were in their 20s) Wayne provided administrative oversight. But how much did he own?

Apple’s third co-founder sold his 10% stake in the company for $800 just 12 days after its formation. A year later he received another $1,500 to forfeit any future claims against Apple. Today, that stake would be worth over $300 billion. An increase of 37,500,000,000%

2. Blockbuster Declines to Buy Netflix (2000) Blockbuster had the opportunity to purchase Netflix for $50 million but declined. Netflix is now a streaming giant with a market cap of almost $300 billion. Blockbuster has been reduced to a single store in Bend, Oregon.

3. Excite Declines to Buy Google (1999) Not to be outdone by Yahoo… Excite (also founded by Stanford students) was a popular search engine in the late 1990s. They had a chance to snag Google for only $750,000. Where are they now?

The Excite brand and its services have changed hands multiple times over the last 20 years. It’s now a metasearch engine aggregating results from various sources—including Google and Yahoo. Google’s current market capitalization is over $1.5 trillion.

4. Yahoo’s Multiple Misses In 1997, Sergey Brin offered Page Rank (which became Google) to Yahoo for $1 million. In 2002, Yahoo offered $3 billion. Google countered for $5 billion. Yahoo declined both times. A private equity firm acquired them in 2021 for $5 billion.

5. AOL/Time Warner Merger (2000) Considered one of the worst mergers in corporate history, AOL used its inflated stock during the dot-com bubble to buy Time Warner for $182 billion. Only 2 years later, the bubble burst, AOL’s stock plummeted. Result? $99 billion up in smoke.

6. Decca Passes on The Beatles (1962) After hearing auditions, Decca Records decided to sign The Tremeloes instead of The Beatles. While The Tremeloes had an impressive run of hits in the 60s, The Beatles, well… Their catalog is at an estimated value of $1 billion.

7. Kodak’s Digital Camera Suppression (1975) After inventing the first digital camera, Kodak feared it would ruin their lucrative film business. So management suppressed it. A 1981 internal study predicted digital photos would eventually replace film. Kodak had a 10-year

8. Borders Group’s Late Entry to E-commerce (2008) Borders outsourced its online book sales to Amazon in 2001 and didn’t launch its own e-commerce site until 2008. Just a little late to the party… They closed all stores and ceased operations in 2011. Oof…

9. Western Union Dismisses the Telephone (1876) Western Union passed on the opportunity to buy Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone patent, considering it an “electrical toy.” Bell created his own company. 100 years later, 93% of the U.S. had a phone in their house.

10. Mars Rejects Product Placement in E.T. (1982) Mars declined to have M&Ms used in the film. Instead, Hershey’s agreed, hoping to boost their failing Reese’s Pieces candy. Sales tripled within 2 weeks of the premiere. E.T. should have phoned Mars.