Serendipity

I consider myself a directional opportunist… In some areas I am very goal oriented. In some areas I am very laid back and let in happen. Mostly though I tend to be a directional opportunist. I almost always have a direction and a flexible agenda. With that direction and agenda I carry with me a healthy dose of opportunism. Another way of describing this is Serendipity. Serendipity is defined as looking for something good and finding something better… or if you prefer, finding something better while looking for something good.

The term serendipity was coined by English writer Horace Walpole. He loved reading old Persian tales and came across one called Three Princes of Serendip (Serendip is now know as Sri Lanka) . It told of three young princes who went into the world to seek their fortunes. None found fortune, but each found something even better. One found love, one found beauty, one peace.

Today, Serendipity, the term Walpole coined has been redefined to mean happy accident. But people who say serendipity is a happy accident miss Wolpole’s main point. To him, serendipity was something that could happen only if a person was aware and wise, and only if they were seeking something specific, which gave them a basis on which to judge something else as better. Serendipity is a mindset that people can develop. It requires (awareness, understanding, observation, alertness), and it requires that we be seeking something (have goals, aims, objectives). The definition suggests that as we combine our wisdom with our structure, we will cause the phenomenon of discovering things that are better than what we were pursuing.

A father, looking out his office window, notices that it is an exceptionally beautiful afternoon and decides he could finish the work he is doing the next morning. He goes home early and takes his three-year-old to the zoo.

A businessman reads an article that gives him a new idea. He changes his schedule and makes some phone calls which end up providing him with a lucrative new client.

A mother has set a goal to clean out her refrigerator but just as she is starting, she notices that her two-year old is looking at picture books on his own for the first time. She puts off the refrigerator for a while and reads to the child.

A couple on their second honeymoon is waiting in line in an airport to get a rental car. They strike up a conversation with a woman in the line, who happens to tell them of a marvelous, quaint little hotel. They change their reservations from the plan given to them by the travel agent and end up discovering a “perfect place”.


Goals are a good thing. You need them. But always allow God to do something even better than you could ask for or imagine. If you are reading this blog regularly, chances are you are pursuing success in business or sales. As you read the posts for next week, be open to something even better.