“In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.” – Albert Einstein
We often think of uncertainty as something we need to eliminate.
We want the answer.
We want the plan.
We want to know what happens next.
But uncertainty is also where innovation begins.
If we already know the answer, there is very little left to discover.
Every invention begins with something that isn’t known. A problem that doesn’t have a satisfactory answer. A possibility that hasn’t yet been tested. Sometimes, it begins with something that looks insignificant.
Consider an unstruck match.
No one can know how brightly an unstruck match will burn.
It contains the capability to produce fire, but until it is struck, that capability remains only a possibility.
And perhaps that is what uncertainty does
It creates the space between what we know and what might be possible.
We don’t always know what an idea will become when we begin. We don’t know whether it will work. We don’t know whether anyone will care about. We don’t know what problems it might eventually solve.
That uncertainty can be uncomfortable.
But it can also be productive.
An idea may solve the problem we were trying to solve-or it may lead us somewhere completely unexpected.
A discovery can become a tool.
A tool can become an invention.
An invention can challenge another person’s thinking.
And that person may take the idea somewhere the original inventor never imagined.
So perhaps the purpose of an invention isn’t always limited to what the inventor intended it to do.
Perhaps its purpose can also be what it causes someone else to imagine.
That is why uncertainty matters.
We should not always ask, “How do I eliminate what l don’t know?”
Sometimes the better question is: “What can I discover because I don’t know?”
The uncertainty itself may be the opportunity.
We don’t know how brightly the unstruck match will burn.
But we won’t know until we strike it.
And sometimes, the important thing isn’t the fire.
It is discovering what the light allows us to see.
Takeaway:
Embrace what you don’t know. It might reveal something new.
Presented by Bill Dvorak; September 17, 2026