Procrastination is opportunity's assassin.

Victor Kiam, a businessman and marketer best known for popularizing the Remington electric shaver, used this aphorism in the context of entrepreneurial decision-making and personal productivity. The line reflects a late-20th-century business ethos that prized speed, initiative, and seizing fleeting market openings—an outlook shaped by competitive consumer markets and the constant pressure to act before rivals do. In that milieu, “opportunity” is treated as time-sensitive, and delay is framed not as neutrality but as an active force that destroys potential gains. The quote is typically circulated as a standalone maxim in business and motivational collections rather than tied to a single famous speech.

The aphorism frames procrastination not as a harmless delay but as an active, destructive force: it “assassinates” opportunity by letting time-sensitive chances expire. The metaphor implies that opportunities are living, perishable things—dependent on timing, initiative, and follow-through—and that inaction can be as consequential as a wrong action. Attributed to businessman Victor Kiam, the line fits a pragmatic, entrepreneurial worldview in which execution matters more than intention. Its punch comes from moralizing delay: procrastination becomes culpable, not merely inefficient, urging decisiveness and immediate action when conditions are favorable.