What is Serendipity

Chance encounters & unplanned moments of magic

Have you ever experienced those beautiful moments that could not have been planned?

Those moments where you just happened to be in the right place at the right time?

Maybe you met a new partner by “coincidence” or you found a new job opportunity through “pure luck”?

We like to think we are in control of our futures. And to some extent we are, but underneath all of our planning and strategizing, there seem to be other factors in play here.

Even the most ordinary, day-to-day moments like bumping into a friend at the gym or chatting with the person next to you at a coffee shop have the power to completely change your life.

In 1754, Horace Walpole coined the term serendipity. He came up with the word after reading a fairytale known as The Three Princes of Serendip.

Horace wrote in a letter to a relative:

“this discovery, indeed, is almost of that kind which I call Serendipity, a very expressive word.”  It came from “a silly fairy tale, called The Three Princes of Serendip: as their highnesses traveled, they were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of….”

Everyone has experienced this before. Where you set out with a goal or mission in mind, but then end up making an accidental discovery along the way which turns out to be in your favor.

Nylon, Velcro, Viagra, X-Rays, and Post-it Notes all involved serendipity. None of these inventions were on purpose, they were all accidental discoveries.

Tracing back to the source

I have this weird thing I do where I try to trace back certain parts of my life to one single event or encounter. Then I ask myself, how many things had to go just right for me to be in this exact moment right now?

I’m fascinated by these types of questions:

• If my father didn’t study engineering, would I have studied engineering? And if I didn’t study engineering, would I ever have met my friend Xavi who was the catalyst for me moving to Barcelona?

• What about my social circle? What would it look like had I never joined a co-working space when I first moved here?

• What about my hobbies? Would I have such a deep love for biking had I not run into my friend Dani riding his bike one day?

These unexpected encounters shape our decisions and our future selves.

The issue is that we often only take into account serendipity in hindsight, we rarely notice it happening in the moment. The reason being that it’s typically a compilation of small events leading up to one big “ah-ha” moment.

To quote the late Steve Jobs: "You can't connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something -- your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."

Becoming more aware of these small moments is a skill that we can cultivate. Always know that you are only one decision away from creating a totally different life for yourself.

Cultivating chance encounters

Serendipity is the unexpected good luck that results from unplanned moments.

By definition, you can’t plan a serendipitous encounter. It’s unpredictable. It’s something that happens without you having any control over it.

The key to creating more serendipitous moments in your life is to be hyper-aware of the things happening around you and to look out for the signs that the universe is sending you.

It's about recognizing an unexpected opportunity and then taking action to see where it leads you. These opportunities pop up all over the place in our everyday lives, but most people are oblivious to them.

As Christian Busch explains in his book The Serendipity Mindset:

Serendipity is the hidden force in the world. It is present all around us, from the smallest day-to-day events to life-changing moments.

Once we accept that serendipity is not just a coincidence that happens to us, we start to see bridges where others see gaps. It’s simply a process of spotting and connecting the dots.

Flex your serendipity muscle

The beauty of serendipity lies in the fact that it is unexpected and unplanned. But lucky for us, there are ways to cultivate more serendipity into your life.

You’ve probably met someone before who seems to have these serendipitous encounters all the time. It’s not a matter of just blind luck or coincidence. 

The reason they’re so “lucky” is because their serendipity muscle is jacked! 

As the saying goes “success is when preparation meets opportunity”.

Here are a few tips I’ve found useful in order to cultivate more serendipity in my life:

First, I am always looking to expand and diversify my network.

Meet new people, talk to strangers, attend live events. Try going to a meet-up on a topic that piques your interest. Try taking group exercise classes like yoga or HIIT Training, most gyms include these types of classes in the membership. Try going to a language exchange or joining an online mastermind community. 

The opportunities to connect with others are endless if you put in a little effort. 

It might feel hard at first, but I promise it’s actually really easy!

You just say: fuck it, I’m doing this 3, 2,1 go.

People love sharing information with other people. When you expand your network outside of your immediate friend circle, you expose yourself to new ideas and different ways of thinking.

This is the exact reason why Google and Pixar organized their office spaces in ways that maximize cross-pollination of employees. 

They designed their headquarters to have a big atrium, a central coffee shop, and mailboxes at the center, which nudge people from separate departments to ‘bump into each other’ by design. They are trying to create serendipitous encounters which never would have happened if everyone was stuck in their cubicles all day.

You’ll also want to start doing shit by yourself. Weak people can’t do that, don’t be weak. 

Don’t feel like you always need to be latched on to a group of friends to do things. When I’m alone, I find myself more inclined to strike up a conversation with a stranger or vice versa.

Try to find commonalities with other people. When we establish commonalities, it opens the door to deeper conversations. Deeper conversations lead to new ideas or introductions which might not have happened if you hadn’t established common ground.

An easy way to establish more commonalities is by giving people multiple things to latch onto when they ask you a question.

Christian Busch refers to this as setting up “Serendipity Triggers”. They can then take these triggers and associate them with other ideas or people as shown in the diagram below. This is how serendipity materializes out of thin air:

When someone asks me “Where are you from?” I don’t just reply with where I was born or where I’m currently living. Instead, I always answer by saying “I was born in Budapest but when I was little we moved to Florida which is where I grew up, and now I’m living in Barcelona.” This helps open up Pandora’s box of possibilities.

Another prime example is the “What do you do for work?” question.

Rather than just giving a one-word answer about your current role or position, you can answer with something unexpected like: “Do you want the practical or the philosophical answer?”

From here you can go on to explain not just your current “job” but past jobs or what you really want to do for work or even your hobbies and interests. So for me, I would say something like “I studied engineering at university and then went into that field for a few years, then I quit my job and became a tour guide in Spain, and now I do online coaching/business consulting.”

Again, what this does is open up the conversation to way more possibilities rather than just giving a single answer. With single-word answers, the other person might not find a commonality to latch onto and the conversation might fade out.

When we’re able to give people multiple Serendipity Triggers in a conversation or situation, it leaves so much more room for association with other ideas or people. These associations can then lead to introductions or insights that you wouldn’t have gotten had you not given multiple answers to the question.

Curiosity is also a key component for finding Serendipity Triggers.

Start simply by asking “why” more. This will often help you get past the surface-level answers and lead to deeper and more meaningful conversations.

The point I’m stressing here is that we need to start seeing every situation — and particularly, every conversation — as an opportunity to experience serendipity.

Final Thoughts

The more you connect with new people, experiences, ideas, and ways of thinking, the more serendipity you will encounter.

Let’s see if we can conjure up some serendipity in your own life.

My advice is to stay in touch with as many people as you can. 

That’s when the compound effect comes into play. By keeping in touch with an adequate number of people, we can also hope that they keep in touch with other people, which means you are essentially a second-degree connection to thousands of other people. 

You’re only one introduction away from thousands of other people.

Oftentimes, one introduction is more than enough to change your life.

The denser our network, the more opportunities for a meaningful life.

So try making a list of three people who you haven’t spoken to in a while. Reach out to them. See what they're up to and fill them in on what you’re up to.

This simple act of awareness can plant the seed to something you never could have planned for on your own.

We like to make it seem as if our life path was some deliberate plan, but most of it’s really a matter of fate and being in the right place at the right time.

Until next time my friends.

<3 B