: the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for
By definition, you can’t increase the amount of serendipity in your life. Or can you?
Jason Roberts explores the idea that luck has an expandable surface area in his blog Codus Operandi, How to Increase Your Luck Surface Area. Jason explores effective communication and passion as the driving forces of luck.
Passion. Effective communication. Luck. These are words with cultural baggage and, except for effective communication, are hard to replicate.
One of my favorite explorations of entrepreneurs is How I Built This with Guy Raz. Guy often ends his interview by asking the guest, “whether luck or skill/hard work accounts for their success?”
I’ve got my history with this question. We had Change Agents In Residence (CAIRs) that visited during our monthly retreats at Bainbridge Graduate Institute. Think Ben Cohen (Ben & Jerry’s), Adam Lowry (Method), or Kim Jordan (New Belgium Brewery). Gifford interviewed the CAIRS during fireside chats and always asked some form of the luck/skill question. Luck was a repeat answer, and it drove me crazy. How do I replicate luck?
I prefer the word serendipity for a few reasons. First, it’s fun to say. Second, I don’t think it has the same baggage as luck. To me, serendipity implies more of a karmic approach to luck. In other words, you get back what you put out into the world. A quirk of karmic accounting is that credits and debits accrue over lifetimes. There is no guarantee that what you put out there will come back to you in this life, much less annually or quarterly.
I know that doing good for the sake of doing doesn’t solve the replicability problem, but it should make the world a better place:)
Serendipity does offer one replicable lesson, recognizing serendipity. Being aware of and appreciating what’s working in your life is often called gratitude. Science supports the benefits of gratitude. Daily, weekly, and monthly gratitude practices are simple (e.g., write three things down) and ubiquitous in the “self-help” space.
Gratitude is a daily practice for me. The bar can be as low as the sleep I did get after a rough night. There are also moments of real breakthroughs, uncanny luck, and beauty.
What are you grateful for?