Tuesday, November 24, 2009
It sounds like another word for luck. Even the dictionary definition is unflinching in its use of words like good fortune and chance.
David Armano, commenting on Chris Brogan's position (Why Serendipity is Underrated) this week remarks, "Serendipity is underrated because it's fuzzy, intangible." Agreed. So, what gives?
Please endure this personal anecdote to begin to understand the point I'll soon make.
After hearing I was single, yet nevertheless open to marriage, a woman friend surprised me by asking straight out, "What are you looking for?" I surprised myself by not only having an answer but one that was comprehensive and concise. Though never having considered the matter so directly, I responded without hesitation: "Beauty."
(Lest you think this response was simplistic and superficial I knew instinctively that my version of beauty included and transcended the anatomically attractive. Suffice to say, it had much to do with the nature of "her" relationship with the world.)
Less than three weeks later, I met the woman who in six months would become my wife.
Contrast this with a friend whose life could be said to revolve around frequent, atypical sexual activity. He is seldom shy nor short of a saga about a remarkable, frequently unimaginable, tryst. And after each tale
I ask myself, "How does he find these women?"
Well? Is finding a partner or mate, customer or client just co-incidence? Or is there more to it?
Let’s look at is this way: It seems that when we construct specific models of what we genuinely want (who we really are) we open the door to achieving our desires. Whether this ultimately happens at a conscious or unconscious level is immaterial. As long as we consciously articulate our goal(s), we allow events to begin to work in our favor.
The less ambiguous we are about who and what we are, the more attractive we become to those with some use for us. In broad daylight, which light attracts moths?
Few disagree that a business ought to be specific about what it stands for, what it wants, and what it offers to whom. These things, in other words, are positioning, goal-setting, targeting. All business.
Whether for an impulse purchase or for a long-term romance, who today can afford to leave serendipity to mere chance?
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