“Stop waiting for the ‘perfect’ conditions. They don’t exist.”

In 1973, advertising legend Sir John Hegarty helped launch the London office of TBWA with a bold vision of building the first truly pan-European agency. Then, the world went into recession, oil prices skyrocketed, and the UK was forced into working a three-day week to save electricity.

That’s what you call friction.

Here’s his takeaway from this experience, which ultimately led him to build BBH with Nigel Bogle and John Bartle, who faced this challenge with him:

“On paper, it was the worst possible time to start. In reality, it was the best. We learned how to survive a crisis… Stop waiting for the ‘perfect’ conditions. They don’t exist. Sometimes you have to start in the dark and trust that you’re building the muscles you’ll need when the lights finally come back on.”

You can read his post here.

State of Social has always embraced friction.

Every year, State of Social invites our industry’s smartest minds and savviest pioneers to share what they’ve learned the hard way – people actually doing the work every day rather than simply pontificating about it. It’s about real-world challenges and real-world solutions. Always has been.

“State of Social gave me the time and new perspectives I need to look at the problems I’m facing in a different way. I left feeling stronger.”

“I came away with a goal to really evaluate how our social presence is representing who we are and how to make strategic changes to solve some of our consumer issues.”

“Overall, it was just a great prompt to get out of a ‘creative rut’ and start finding ways to seek inspiration and apply more creativity to my work.”

At State of Social ’26, we’re going further and actively harnessing friction.

This year, we’re saying, don’t look for ways to avoid stress and tension – find ways to use them as a springboard for new ideas, as an opportunity to challenge yourself and your assumptions, to emerge stronger and do something special that you might otherwise have delayed or dismissed.

After all (and to paraphrase Sir John), if you’ve got a bold vision but can only see roadblocks and speed bumps, then it’s probably the perfect time to build the skills and resilience you need to succeed.