Why this Management Guru Wants You to ‘Waste’ Money to Grow Your Business

Luke Williams has a message that goes against everything most business owners believe: You need to waste money. Not recklessly, but intentionally. Williams isn’t talking about throwing cash into the wind. He is talking about investing in ideas that might not pay off right away, or ever.

Williams teaches innovation at NYU and has worked with top companies around the world. His core belief? Business growth doesn’t come from squeezing every last drop of value from what worked yesterday. It comes from doing what feels uncomfortable: Experimenting, learning, and sometimes “wasting” money to discover what is next.

Return on Learning Beats ROI

Most companies obsess over ROI. Every dollar needs to prove its worth. But Williams flips that thinking. He pushes for ROL, ‘Return on Learning.’ The real win, he says, isn’t always money back. It is insight, and knowing what doesn’t work, what might work, and what could be the next big thing.

Elevate / Pexels / Learning has value, even if it looks like failure. Spending money on a bold idea that flops can still move your company forward. You learn faster and adapt quickly.

Williams warns against “incremental thinking.” That is when companies continue to do what already works, just a little better. The problem is, while you are fine-tuning your old model, someone else is building something that makes your model obsolete.

If your business only plays it safe, you risk falling behind. Innovation means pushing boundaries. That starts with asking bold questions, not just making small upgrades. Disruption doesn’t wait for permission.

Ideas are Your Real Currency

To Williams, the most valuable asset a company can have isn’t money. It is ideas. If you have more ideas than your competitors, you have more chances to win. You can shift faster, try more things, and find fresh ways to serve your customers.

Forget about chaotic brainstorming sessions with sticky notes and loud voices. Williams believes in “deliberate creativity.” You train your brain to challenge what feels normal.

That means building habits around asking, “What if?” It means rewarding curiosity, even if it leads nowhere. Eventually, those questions lead somewhere valuable. Deliberate creativity turns your whole team into problem solvers, not just task managers.

The Bigger Lesson for Business Environments Everywhere

While this mindset has deep relevance in places like Hawaii, where industries have come and gone, the lesson is global. Every economy, every business hub, faces the same pressure: change or be left behind. The companies that survive in the long term are those that continually evolve.

Hillary / Pexels / Instead of hiring people who fit the mold, Williams recommends hiring “Imagineers.” People who bring strange, bold, creative energy.

Every region needs to encourage a business culture that rewards fresh thinking. Waiting for a perfect idea or the “right” industry to lead growth is a trap.

Old Thinking vs. New Thinking

Traditional thinking wants proof before action. Disruptive thinking says action creates the proof. Instead of picking a single industry to back, smart leaders create conditions where many ideas can grow. That is how breakthroughs happen.

Not to shake things up for fun, but to build the future. The goal is growth, not comfort.

Failure Isn’t the Enemy!

Playing it safe looks good on paper. But over time, it kills progress. Innovation comes from making mistakes, learning quickly, and fixing what is broken. Williams says teams should be encouraged to rethink everything, from products and processes to customers and even the core mission.

This approach doesn’t ignore strategy. It deepens it. You are not throwing stuff at the wall blindly. Instead, you are testing with intent, learning from each try, and improving with each round. That is the loop successful companies run every day.