Inspired by another thread, I wondered which predictions made by well-known professionals or in your personal environment turned out wrong and left an impression on you.
I’m the third son of an alcoholic and, naturally, everyone was expecting us (my twin brother and me) to be a chip off the old block since these things often run in the family. Yet that didn’t happen. I was embarrassed and not attracted probably because there were correctives that came in time, proved stronger, and showed alternatives. Not sure what would’ve happened without that counter-influence, though. I’m satisfied it turned out that way.
On different scale, I was stunned at how big shots can be so wrong in their judgement, especially because it could have been avoided so easily. Take the example of VWs CEO Carl Hahn who thought that East Germans, when they were free to choose a car after the wall had come down, would, naturally, go for a VW Polo - no other car. That is very close to former communist leader Honecker who’d decided that the East Germans don’t need another car than the Trabant and who was convinced that they didn’t want one either. How little both figures understood about people’s mindset at the time.