Barking Up The Wrong Tree

"We are capable of infinitely more than we believe. The only restriction on our capacity to astonish ourselves and each other is impoased by our minds."
David Blaine

Sir Clive Sinclair is one of Britain's best known inventors.

Forget what you've heard about the Japanese. It was Sir Clive who invented the first pocket calculator. It was Sir Clive who gave you the first miniature television. And it was Sir Clive who invented the digital watch. He has also recently invented a radio - the Z1 Button Radio - the size of a ten pence coin that fits in your ear.

It was also Sir Clive Sinclair who revolutionised home computing in 1980 with his ZX Spectrum computer and its price tag of less than £100.

Unfortunately though, Sir Clive will always be best remembered for one of the biggest marketing flops of all time - the Sinclair C5 electric tricycle.

Only about 12,000 of the Sinclair C5s were ever produced in what was a classic case of putting the cart before the horse. It was a great idea launched in a blaze of publicity, but the problem was nobody wanted to buy one.

Sir Clive Sinclair lost millions and in doing so underlined a very simple truth that many of us forget during the adrenalin rush that developing new ideas brings.

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Posted by gowyc at December 13, 2003 08:27 PM | TrackBack