There are two stories I keep coming back to when I think about timing: one is about startups, the other is about, well, everything.
It’s one of those things that feels out of our control, yet it’s everywhere—shaping how things work out in ways we often don’t realize.
The First Lesson: Startups and Staying Flexible
This TED Talk by Bill Gross breaks down why startups succeed. It wasn’t just about having a brilliant idea, the perfect team, or enough money. It turns out timing was the biggest factor.
He gave this example about Airbnb. It wasn’t just a great idea—people had been renting rooms forever—but the timing was perfect. It was the middle of a recession, and suddenly, everyone needed extra income and didn’t mind renting out their space.
The lesson? Timing matters. But you don’t always know when it’s right. What you can do is stay flexible—ready to pivot when the moment feels right. If Airbnb had launched years earlier, it might not have worked. If they’d waited too long, someone else would’ve taken the idea.
For me, it’s a reminder: stay in the game, keep trying, and don’t get stuck when things don’t go exactly as planned. The timing might just not be right yet.
The Second Lesson: Earth’s Cosmic Timing
The other story about timing is much bigger—literally. Earth is habitable because everything lined up just right. Its orbit, its distance from the sun, the conditions in the galaxy—if one little thing were off, none of us would be here.
In A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson describes this in fascinating detail. He explains how Earth’s history is a series of incredible coincidences—our atmosphere forming just right, the planet avoiding catastrophic cosmic events, and life evolving against all odds. Timing wasn’t just lucky; it was everything.
Bryson’s takeaway? Survival isn’t about a single lucky moment. It’s about resilience. Earth stayed in the game long enough for life to emerge and thrive.
The lesson for us? The longer you stay relevant, the more chances you have to align with your own “cosmic events.”
So my take away is this :
- Be Flexible, But Stick With It: Things will change. Pivot as you see fit. But don’t let setbacks make you quit—just adjust.
- Keep Moving, even when it’s slow: progress doesn’t always feel big. Sometimes it’s just staying open to opportunities until the right one comes along.
The way I see it, timing is about more than being lucky. It’s about giving yourself time for things to work out. So start now, keep going, and don’t get discouraged when things feel slow. The longer you stick around, the better your chances get.