They say that nobody is perfect and we all make mistakes but some mistakes may be more catastrophic and detrimental than others. Making a mistake is completely normal; sometimes people go into an endeavor expecting one outcome but end up having to deal with an entirely different outcome altogether. In most cases, once you make a mistake, it’s wise to learn from it and move on. However, some mistakes have proved to be so catastrophic and costly that they have continued to serve as a constant reminder for future generations.

So, if you are interested in knowing about some of the most expensive mistakes in history, hang on to your hats, for we’re off to the races!

1. Isaac Peral Class Spanish Submarine

When you think of a submarine, with the amount of time, money, and man-hours spent on its research and development, there usually isn’t room for a lot of error–but that wasn’t the case for the Isaac Peral submarine. Submarines are important for marine security and their ability to swiftly move from one point to another without detection but what’s the point of a submarine that can’t surface at all? This happened because sometime during its inception and development, someone mistakenly placed a decimal point in the wrong place when denoting a key value. This subsequently resulted in the submarine becoming 100 tons heavier than a regular submarine. However, realizing their mistake, the designers quickly changed the sumarine’s dimensions so that it would be able to support the weight. Now that must have cost them a pretty penny.

Naval News | Talk about all the ‘drowned’ assets

2. The Journey from Coca-Cola to Coke

In most cases, multinational companies tread the waters very carefully when it comes to new products and promotions but sometimes, they don’t. This was exactly the case with the Coca-Cola Company when it tried to create a whole new drink named coke. In 1985, the company released a new drink called coke which was geared towards the youngsters and had a much sweeter taste but it didn’t work out the way they wanted. As it turned out the issue was not related to the new look or the reworked formula but the fact that people were too emotionally attached to the original product the company had been offering for a century or so.

Coke | Maybe changing the recipe wasn’t the best move for Coca-Cola

3. The Sad But True Tale of Ronald Wayne

This particular story dates back to 1976 when Ronald Wayne met Steve Jobs who introduced him to his work in the computer industry. Once the two started working together, Wayne settled for a 10% stake in the Apple company but two weeks later, he wasn’t pleased with his investment and so he ended up reselling the shares back to the company owner. If Ronald Wayne had held on to his stock, he could have been one of the richest people today. Talk about a foot in mouth situation.

Pexels | Wayne now has a net worth of $400,000, which isn’t too bad - but being amongst the richest would’ve been better

If only someone could build a time machine so these mistakes could’ve been avoided entirely. But, oh well, we live and learn.