Daily Inspiration Quote by Edward de Bono

De Bono’s line lands like a polite slap at the cult of “being ready.” It’s not motivational fluff so much as a diagnosis of how people outsource agency to the calendar. The conditional “If you wait” is doing the heavy lifting: he frames passivity as a choice, not a temperament or a bad break. Then he twists the knife with “one of the crowd,” a phrase that doesn’t just imply mediocrity; it implies anonymity. The threat isn’t failure. It’s invisibility.

As a psychologist best known for lateral thinking, de Bono is arguing against the default cognitive mode: pattern-following, permission-seeking, and the comforting belief that the world hands out openings to the deserving. “Opportunities” are treated like weather systems that “occur.” His subtext is that this is a category error. Opportunities aren’t events; they’re constructions - often manufactured by reframing constraints, asking the question nobody asked, or moving first before the rules harden.

The quote also carries a quiet critique of meritocratic mythology. Waiting is what institutions reward: get the credential, follow the ladder, submit the application, stand in line. De Bono’s point is that crowds form exactly where the script is clearest. If you want a different outcome, you can’t rely on the same cues everyone else is relying on.

What makes it work is its compression: no pep, no blueprint, just a social consequence. He motivates through status and identity - a reminder that creativity isn’t a personality trait, it’s a behavioral posture.