You can have billions of euros, be the most famous person in Europe, the proud owner of the largest estate around or even run your own country, but you will still be unable to travel to Mars. The technology doesn’t exist…. yet. That’s because timing is everything. If you look at the most successful business ventures, the winning outcome was the result of a combination of factors, not just great ideas and great leaders.

Timing is not the only key ingredient, but without the right timing, your project, business idea or proposal, will either make great sense to a lot of people or complete hogwash to everyone.

You may graduate from a prestigious university in your country and you might even be the valedictorian of your class. But if you studied art, and the only jobs in the marketplace where you live are for farmers, you may have chosen a dignified degree, but not a very practical one that allows you to survive in the real world. That is because the Creative Arts Society has not been founded yet and so, at the time, you did not have the opportunity to apply for financial aid to set up your own gallery. Timing is everything.

Some of the greatest inventors of all time were the great Thomas Edison and Benjamin Franklin. Thomas Edison will go down forever in the history of the world, together with Franklin, as pioneers in the field of electricity. Yet, they would not have been so famous if it were not for the work of their predecessors: William Gilbert (electric substances – 1600), Otto Von Guericke and Francis Hauksbee (static electricity production – 1660), not to mention Stephen Gray (conductors ) and Robert Boyle (electric flow). Without their contributions, Franklin and Edison would not even have come close to their discoveries and inventions. So experimentation and knowledge are certainly indispensable, but so is timing!

Sometimes, depending on the circumstances, their are defining moments in life. The same is true in business. When you fail to close a deal, another salesperson or representative is replacing you and your company. Everyone can give you advice, but again, it is all timing. If a salesperson insists on offering his carpet cleaning services to a person who has just decided to strip their offices of carpeting, that’s also timing, bad luck – but still bad timing.

Now you are saying to yourself, “easier said than done.” In reality, timing is extremely hard to find and once you have found it, it is another challenge to execute the proper plan to seize the moment. In sales, it might be that last push to convince the client to seal the deal and sign the contract. In meetings, it may be expressing your idea when no one else has intervened. Or maybe after waiting for days to talk to your boss, you finally get the courage to knock on your boss’s door and say, “ Do you have a minute? I would like to discuss my goals for the upcoming months.” Whatever it is you are trying to achieve, remember to look for the right timing – the appropriate and ideal moment to execute your plan of action.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aliedwards/800716763/