What he got instead was near bankruptcy.ħ. To teach them a lesson, incensed Piggly Wiggly owner Clarence Saunders sought to buy back all of his stock from tricksy prospectors. Revenge isn’t actually so sweet – and it certainly doesn’t pay. A lesson from Piggly Wiggly’s investment debacle: By 1965, however, Xerox was in trouble: while they’d been busy philanthropizing, competitors had caught up fast.Ħ. Nobody expected copy machines to take off when Xerox launched its product in 1959, but by 1964, revenue was so good that the company could afford to drop $4 million to support the UN. A lesson from Xerox’s rollercoaster success: In summary: when Texas Gulf executives found out about mineral-rich ground the company had just struck, they slowly began buying up stock shares and telling their families to follow suit – all the while denying the find to the public. Just as people are inherently irrational, you can also count on them to be pretty self serving, too. A lesson from the Texas Gulf case of 1959: The only real recourse would be a do-over.Ĥ. Over the years, the US tax system became so convoluted, corrupt, and loophole laden that it now encourages inefficiency. Sometimes, the best solution is to scrap it. A lesson from the federal income tax system: When Ford wasn’t looking, mid-sized dropped off of their buying radar.ģ. Customers’ wishes can change very quickly and it’s important to keep a finger on the collective pulse. Facts are a lot less compelling than the dictates of the lizard brain. Over the course of only three days, fear and panic led the stock market to plummet $20 billion only to boomerang back up a day later. At their core, humans are basically emotional, irrational beings.

Business adventures bill gates