Annoyingly, UK’s Link operator of cash machines is launching what it’s calling MobileATM. Users will be able to download the Java app onto their phones and enjoy some of the functionality of an ATM.

No, they won’t be able to get their phones to spit out cash. But they will be able to check and transfer balances. Plus, they promise a facility to top up pre-pay mobile accounts directly from bank accounts, which is pretty cool.

So why is this annoying? Well, I was pitching this same concept to banks and building societies in the UK two years ago. Back then, polite “that’s really interesting” type of comments was the best result I got.

I don’t think it was my sales ability either. Like so often, I was just too early and I never seem to learn this lesson. So by the time they were ready to talk I was on to the next big thing. Being right isn’t nearly as cool as being rich - or at least making the sale.

One of the hardest and most unfair aspects of business is the right timing. Show me a brilliant idea with a great team and it’ll fail if the time’s not right. Mediocre teams and ideas can thrive if they surf the wave right*.

You won’t read that in many business books.

*By the way, I got the “surfing the wave” thing from the unlikely source of Duran Duran’s Simon le Bon. About 25 years ago (yes I am that old) I was sitting next to him in a hairdresser - he was at Birmingham Poly and I was at Aston University. It was before Duran were famous, but they were enjoying some success locally.

The hairdresser asked him how things were going and he said “Well, you know man, it’s like there’s a kinda….wave and you know, you just gotta ride it, this wave of success….or you, you know, will kinda…fall off and drown, man.”

No, honestly, that’s what he said.

I thought to myself:

“Pompous, stoned, no hoper, looser.” Clearly, I was wrong again.

Story source: VNU Net. Obviously not the bit about Simon le Bon. And he probably wasn’t stoned, either.