I love the word serendipity; it means the “effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something entirely unrelated”. In French its sérendipicité, and also heureux hasard, “fortunate chance”…and when it happens, it is powerful. I want to share how to tap into the power of serendipity and how it can work for business.
The more we work on-line and engage on different social media platforms such as Twitter (especially Twitter) we can create serendipity for ourselves, as serendipity thrives on the web and it creates opportunities; and opportunities are always good for business.
It is important to recognise that serendipity itself is unpredictable that happens more when you work harder, but isn’t always there because you tried hard. You can’t predict when it happens, though you can sometimes have a good guess.
Serendipity is an approach that should be cultivated and practiced at all times. It happens best when we are networking and using social media; we increase our chances of it happening. The more we work at what we do then the better are our chances are for serendipity to occur. Here are some things we can do to increase serendipity in our lives:
Be random and open – We are conditioned not to talk to strangers, yet some people enter our lives and change them forever. Don’t just aim to talk to the people you think you need to when at events…you just don’t know who the other people in the room are connected to and who they may know?!;
Be helpful – Go out of your way to be kind, friendly and helpful to everyone – they are likely to pay you back and remember you;
Get out there – serendipity networking has a lot to do with being at the right place at the right time;
Always have business cards – Most of your networking won’t occur between Monday to Friday between 9am-5pm; unexpected conversations are the stuff serendipity networking is made of!
Through my own ‘serendipity moments’ I have connected to a wealth of expertise, business and personal contacts. I have also collected some pretty amazing stories along the way. Here’s one…
A lady in London noticed a new florist that had opened at her local tube station. She decided to go in and give some local support; she bought some flowers. While there this lady started a conversation with the florist and discovered that this florist’s biggest customer was Simon Cowell…so, yes you just don’t know who people know and what opportunities are waiting for you; what we do know is that when you are more serendipitous in your outlook, we create opportunities and possibilities – which is always good for business.
This brilliant Guest Blog was written by Sangeeta Haindl of Serendipity PR
