Serendipity

“Serendipity always rewards the prepared.”

–  Katori Hall (b. 1981), Memphis-born and Tony-nominated actress, author and playwright  

“But Heston,” you might be thinking, “serendipity is defined as ‘good fortune, discovered by luck.’  How can you be prepared for that?”

We gotta look around.  No matter how cynical we think we’ve become, or we want to become, or feel — it will serve us well to imagine that something really good is right around the corner.

Because if we’re looking for it, we’re much more likely to find it.

I got a blind outreach from a young man on LinkedIn last week.  His profile picture makes him look about our daughter’s age.  Our youngest daughter! In transition, he was looking to connect on a couple different levels.  Now, of the 3,800 or so LinkedIn connections in my network, I’ve actually been in conversation with about 90% of them, and I don’t, as a rule, accept “blind” invitations.  In fact, I don’t even look into them all that often.

Something about this young man, though, pulled me into the invitation, and then to his profile. Turns out he’s had a pretty impressive first five years of his career.  Turns out he used to work with someone I mentored, and who, it turns out, speaks very highly of him.  Turns out, we had a cup of coffee.

He was prepared – so his “good fortune, discovered by luck,” was hand-built and custom designed.

I, for some reason, was prepared — open to an outreach, and my “good fortune, discovered by luck” is that I’m either going to have an amazing guy on my team, or I’m going to get to help an amazing guy connect with someone in the 3,800 who needs an amazing guy.

Take the call.  Look at least one layer deep into that thing that might look uninteresting at first.

Then be prepared for good fortune, discovered by your preparedness.