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There is something unique about the third quarter that separates it from every other period in the business calendar.
Q1 is fueled by optimism. New budgets have been signed off, strategic plans are fresh and ambitions are high. Q2 is often spent adjusting course, refining priorities and responding to whatever surprises the first half of the year has delivered.
But Q3 hits different. It’s the quarter where momentum either takes hold or quietly disappears.
It’s also the quarter that businesses, advisors and clients are most tempted to get wrong.
Summer has a curious effect on professional life. People go on vacation, meaning decision-making slows, meetings become harder to schedule, and there’s an almost universal temptation to ease off the accelerator and wait until September, or even Q4, before making major decisions.
The instinct is understandable, but in my four decades-long career across the world, I know for sure it’s also a mistake.
In my experience, the businesses, advisory firms and professionals who ultimately have the strongest years are rarely those who treat the summer as a pause. They’re the ones who recognize that momentum is one of the most valuable assets any organization can possess—and one of the easiest to lose.
Momentum is key because business growth rarely happens in dramatic bursts. It compounds.
Client relationships deepen gradually. Referrals build incrementally. Strategic decisions made in July and August frequently determine opportunities that materialize six months or even several years later.
This is particularly true in 2026.
The first half of this year has reminded us that certainty is increasingly rare. Economic expectations have shifted repeatedly. AI has accelerated business transformation at a pace few anticipated. Markets, businesses and clients have all been forced to adapt more quickly than many expected.
Yet amid all this uncertainty, one trend stands out: businesses and individuals globally are continuing to invest, save, plan, and seek advice.
The summer months create space for reflection for clients. Business owners step away from day-to-day operations and begin thinking more strategically, families discuss succession planning, entrepreneurs reassess priorities, and investors reconsider long-term objectives.
These conversations rarely happen during the chaos of January or the intensity of year-end planning.
They happen during periods when people finally have the mental space to think.
This, of course, creates an enormous opportunity for advisors.
Not because clients suddenly need more products or more information. They typically don’t.
What they often need is perspective, clarity and someone willing to engage in bigger conversations about where they are heading and what they want the next five, ten or twenty years to look like.
The advisors who understand this rarely experience a summer slowdown.
They use the period differently.
They strengthen relationships and initiate conversations that are difficult to have when markets are moving rapidly or businesses are consumed by operational demands. They position themselves not simply as advisors, but as strategic partners.
The same applies to business leadership.
There is always a temptation to postpone major decisions until conditions feel more certain. Delay the hiring decision, wait before making the investment, revisit the growth strategy after the summer… you see the pattern.
But business history repeatedly demonstrates that competitive advantage is often built precisely when others are standing still.
Naturally, this does not mean ignoring risk.
It means recognizing that there is also risk in waiting.
Consider the pace of artificial intelligence adoption. Recent research from McKinsey indicates that more than 70% of organizations globally now use AI in at least one business function. The companies gaining the greatest advantage are not necessarily those with the largest budgets. They are the ones willing to move, learn and adapt while others continue debating what happens next.
Momentum creates optionality, confidence, and huge opportunity.
This is why Q3 deserves far more attention than it typically receives.
I believe that the advisory firms that succeed in 2026 will not necessarily be those with the best forecasts or the most elaborate plans.
They’ll be those that understood a simple but powerful truth: The summer is not a time to pause momentum. It’s a time to build it.
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