Now Reading: Montesquieu’s quote on timing is key to success
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Montesquieu’s quote on timing is key to success
Times of India revisits the French Enlightenment thinker Montesquieu's quote: "The success of most things depends upon knowing how long it will take to succeed." The article traces how Amazon founder Jeff…
The Story in Brief
Times of India revisits the French Enlightenment thinker Montesquieu's quote: "The success of most things depends upon knowing how long it will take to succeed." The article traces how Amazon founder Jeff Bezos applied this principle, investing in long-term infrastructure despite Wall Street's demand for quick profits, accepting short-term losses to build eventual dominance.
Montesquieu, whose 1748 work The Spirit of the Laws shaped modern political thought, understood that lasting change requires accurate timelines. The piece connects this wisdom to the planning fallacy identified by Kahneman and Tversky in 1979, where people underestimate time and overestimate benefits, leading to premature abandonment of sound strategies.
The Indian Opinion
The article rightly pushes back against the modern obsession with instant results, a narrative especially loud in India's startup ecosystem. Many founders chase rapid growth and panic when profits don't appear in quarters. Yet Amazon and Montesquieu both prove that knowing the true timeline separates lasting success from flash-in-the-pan hype. The test: will Indian unicorns that burned cash for speed now learn that patience, not pace, builds durable companies?
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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