Lost Opportunities

lake pleasantMark Twain might have been a wonderful writer but he was an unusually bad judge of great opportunities. He squandered a fortune on harebrained schemes that lead him to financial ruin.

One time he exercised amazing self-control and steadfastly refused to invest in the invention of a poor but brilliant young inventor. The young man offered him a large share of his company if Twain would but invest $500 in his scheme. Twain saw no future in the contraption and so he sent Alexander Graham Bell on his way.

Of course Twain wasn’t alone. Joshua Coppersmith was arrested in Boston for trying to sell stock in the telephone. After all, “All well informed people know that it is impossible to transmit the human voice over a wire.”

The first iron plow (1797) was rejected by New Jersey farmers because they felt it poisoned the land and stimulated the growth of weeds.

Bob Hope refused to invest in his friend’s “amusement park” and sent Walt Disney on his way empty-handed.

Col. Sanders was rejected 1,009 times before the first restaurant accepted his chicken proposal.

We might get a chuckle out of these stories but how many people refuse the love of God because redemption just seems “too good to be true.” How about you?

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