10 Most Costly Mistakes of All Time

Mistakes are part of human life. Every Person makes mistakes in their life, learns from these mistakes and moves forward. People are also said to be the "Statue of Errors". But if we make mistakes related to money, it is not so easy to correct them. Below we have discussed some of the costly mistakes people have made and have spent millions of dollars on each mistake.

10. Excite.com

In the 1990s and 2000s, Yahoo was the most visited website or search engine in the world. At the same time, excite.com was the second most visited search engine in the world. In 1999, excite.com received an offer to buy Google for $1 million, but the CEO of excite.com refused to buy Google and this became the biggest mistake of his life. Because today Google has a market value of US$280 billion and is the most visited website in the world.

9. New SNCF trains

In 2014, France ordered 1,800 new trains from SNCF at a cost of US$20.5 billion. The trains were ordered to improve the French railway system. But the government gave the company the wrong dimensions and the trains ended up being a little wider compared to the old stations when the trains were a little thinner. The government intended 30-year-old train stations, but most of the stations were built 50 years ago, and that's where they got it wrong. After this, the French government incurred losses of 68.4 million US dollars for the reconstruction of old stations for new trains.

8. London Millennium Bridge

London's famous Millennium Footbridge began construction in 1998 and officially opened in June 2000. The bridge was built over the River Thames for people to cross. The bridge cost £18.2 million to build. The bridge's engineers focused on design, gravity, and sea level. But they forget about the power exerted by the people walking across the bridge. On opening day, thousands of people came to see the new bridge, but the bridge began to sway. The bridge was eventually closed for that day and then for the next two years to make changes and keep it in stable condition. The reconstruction cost was almost US$6.3 million and the company suffered huge losses. This is one of the most expensive mistakes ever made.

7. Alitalia's Million Dollar Typo

In 2006, Alitalia suffered a huge loss of US$7.7 million due to a stupid mistake. Back in 2006, the cost of business class on a flight from Toronto to Cyprus was about $3,900, but Alitalia sealed it at just $39, so almost 2,000 people booked tickets. The airline initially refused to sell tickets, but then accepted tickets for $39. As I said above, you won't believe that the company lost about $7.7 million due to such a stupid mistake. It was the biggest costly mistake made by any airline in human history.

6. Million Dollar Decimal Error

At that time, a submarine was being built for the Spanish Navy, but this submarine never operated for the Spanish Navy. The submarine's fixed weight was about 7.7 tons, but one of the engineers made a mathematical or decimal point error. The engineer removed the decimals from the number and printed the weight as about 77 tons. After the mistake was admitted, the Spanish government had to pay damages of US$11 million. But even after this, the submarine never worked, and about 6.3 billion dollars were wasted.

5. Never throw away your bitcoins

In 2009, a man named 'James Howell' owned 7,500 bitcoins. But he threw away his computer's hard drive along with his bitcoins. In 2013, Bitcoin became popular and more and more people started investing in Bitcoin. In 2013, the price of his 7,500 Bitcoin was around US$3.5 million, and as of 2020, the price of his 7,500 Bitcoin was around US$70 million. This was his biggest mistake and he could cry every day in any corner of his house.

4. Lottery

Back in 2010, a woman living in central England bought a lottery ticket and waited for the results. When the results were announced, she did not feel happy, although she won $183 million in the lottery. This is the largest lottery prize. She didn't feel happy because her husband threw the lottery ticket in the trash just 1 day before the results were announced.

3. Confusion with units of measurement

As we all know, there are fixed units of measurement such as millimeter, centimeter, meter, kilometer, milligram, gram, kilogram, liter and others. But the British use various measures called English units, such as feet, inches, pounds, ounces and others. In 1999, NASA launched the Mars Orbiter mission and directions to the satellite were given in meters and kilometers, but Lockheed Martin Aerospace gave directions in feet and inches. As a result, the satellite lost its way and got lost in space. NASA spent US$125 million on this project.

2. Million Dollar Stock Market Typo

On December 12, 2005, a great man made a very good mistake. J-Com 1's share price was approximately 610,000 yen (1 share = 610,000 yen). But a man from the Japanese company Mizuho sold 610,000 shares for 1 yen. How did he make such a big mistake, truly unbelievable? Due to this error, the company suffered huge losses of approximately US$225 million.

1. Gold mine for sale

In 1867, Russia thought that their land area had increased and it was difficult to control such a large area. Therefore, the Russian government decided to sell 1.72 million square kilometers to the United States for next to nothing. price 7.2 million US dollars. But this was the biggest mistake Russia made because today this land is called Alaska and has gold mines, natural gas and oil with a market value of about 200 billion US dollars.