The Beatles. What were their best and worst decisions?

Best Decision: Hiring Brian Epstein (1962) This transformed everything. Before Epstein, they were talented but scruffy lads playing Hamburg dives and Liverpool’s Cavern Club. He made them professional: suits, choreographed bows, strategic bookings but without killing their spirit. More crucially, he secured the EMI/Parlophone deal after being rejected everywhere else. Without Epstein’s vision and relentless advocacy, they might have remained Liverpool’s best local band.

Close second: Rejecting the establishment by stopping touring (1966). Revolutionary at the time, it freed them to create Sgt. Pepper, The White Album, and Abbey Road, work that simply couldn’t have happened while grinding through “She Loves You” to screaming crowds.

Worst Decision: Apple Corps (1968) Their utopian business venture haemorrhaged money spectacularly. The “Western communism” approach of giving money to any artist who asked, launching random ventures from boutiques to electronics was chaos. It attracted freeloaders, created tax nightmares, and intensified the business tensions that helped destroy the band.

Close second: Not properly resolving the management dispute after Epstein’s death (1967). The Klein vs. Eastman battle became a proxy war that made the split inevitable and poisoned relationships for decades.

To Study The Beatles is To Study Life.