During the Depression-ridden 1930s, with the United States circling the financial abyss, an American industrialist named Thomas J. Watson Jr. gambled the future of his business-equipment company on an expansion plan that included wholesale hiring, investments in technology, and the construction of new factories.
For six years, Watson had his factories at full bore - churning out tabulating equipment there were no buyers for. But he believed in his plan and stayed with his strategy.