Gordon Gould Quotes
But certainly the laser proved to be what I realized it was going to be. At that moment in my life I was too ignorant in business law to be able to do it right, and if I did it over again probably the same damn thing would happen.
Taylor, Nick. Laser: The Inventor, the Nobel Laureate, and the Thirty-Year Patent War. Simon & Schuster, 2000.
Here he tried to assure everyone that he would not have a conflict of interest. He had created the largest cell phone company in Thailand and others making him the richest Thai. He argued that he no longer owned any businesses as he had transferred all his holdings to his wife and children. He was later convicted of corruption having transferred millions of dollars of government money to his maid and chauffer (without their knowledge) to hide the money the had taken. He jumped bail and fled the country after his conviction and ran his Pheu Thai Party, from abroad. He then had his sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, run in the next election and she was elected Prime Minister and so he continued to control much of the country but could not return last he be jailed.
The last sentence of this quotation was very typical of many middle and even upper middle class Americans in 2016. Change, technological, social and political, was evident almost everywhere and unlike most change of the past, where the change took place over extended periods of time, change was occuring much faster. Voss, like so many others, was feeling overwhelmed, and powerless to control her own life adn destiny. She clearly still had much control over much of her life as her business wold not even exist were it not for the ideas and ahrd work of Casey and her partners, but compared to just decades ago the forces of change were so dynaic that many American felt as she did--that EVERYTHING was out of her control.
Gordon Gould was an American physicist who is often credited with the invention of the laser. (Others attribute the invention to Theodore Maiman). Gould is best known for his thirty-year fight with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to obtain patents for the laser and related technologies. He also fought with laser manufacturers in court battles to enforce the patents he subsequently did obtain.
