The Serendipity Mindset: The Art and Science of Creating Good Luck - Hardcover

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Christian Busch, PhD, is an internationally known expert in the areas of innovation and entrepreneurship. He is the director of the Global Economy Program at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs, and also teaches at the London School of Economics. A cofounder of Leaders on Purpose and the Sandbox Network—and former co-director of the LSE’s Innovation Lab—he has worked with senior executives around the world. He divides his time between New York and London.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Chapter 1

Serendipity

More Than Blind Luck

Humiliating to human pride as it may be, we must recognize that the advance and even the preservation of civilization are dependent upon a maximum of opportunity for accidents to happen. -Friedrich Hayek, winner of the 1974 Nobel Prize in Economics

Serendipity: A Brief History

When King Giaffer, ruler of the ancient country of Serendip (an Old Persian name for Sri Lanka) became concerned that his three sons were too sheltered, privileged, and unprepared for the challenges of ruling the kingdom, he decided to send them on a journey on which they would learn some important life lessons.

In one tale, the princes come across a merchant who has lost a camel. From observations they have made during their journey they describe the camel so well that the merchant believes they must have stolen it.

The merchant takes them to the emperor, who asks how they could possibly have given such a clear description of the camel if they had never seen it. They explain that they knew the camel was lame because they observed tracks showing the prints of three feet and a fourth being dragged, and that they knew it was carrying butter on one side and honey on the other because flies had been attracted to the butter on one side of the road and ants to the honey on the other side of the road, and so on. Suspicions that the princes might have stolen the camel-given their detailed description of it-are rebutted when another traveler enters to say he has found a camel.

The princes did not yet know that a lame, honey-bearing camel was missing when they made their observations. But when they learned that one was missing, they connected this information to what they had observed earlier-they connected the dots.

In 1754, the British writer and politician Horace Walpole wrote to a friend about an unexpected discovery, which he compared to the story of the three princes. In doing so, he coined the word serendipity, describing the princes as people who "were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of."

Thus, the word entered the English language, and while it has been reduced by many to mean simply "good luck," it is clear that Walpole had spotted its subtler meaning. There are other definitions of serendipity, but most demarcate the phenomenon as chance interacting with human action, leading to a usually positive outcome-which is the definition I use here. This action-focused perspective allows us to understand how to develop a space that we can control in which serendipity can happen-a serendipity field.

By definition, serendipity is not controllable, let alone predictable. However, there are tangible, achievable ways to develop the conditions in which serendipity can happen, and to ensure that when such potentially transformational coincidences occur, we can recognize them and grab them with both hands. Serendipity is about seeing what others don't, about noticing unexpected observations and turning them into opportunities. It demands a conscious effort to prompt and leverage those moments when apparently unconnected ideas or events come together in front of you to form a new pattern. Put more plainly, it is about connecting the dots.

From Volcanoes to World Champions

On a sunny Saturday in April 2010, an erupting Icelandic volcano with an unpronounceable name (Eyjafjallajškull) entered popular culture after its resulting ash cloud had grounded thousands of flights across most of Europe. That same morning, an unknown number popped up on my phone. On the line was a stranger, who started speaking self-confidently:

"Hi Christian. We don't know each other yet, but a mutual friend gave me your number. I'd like to ask you for a favor."

Sitting at brunch after a long night out, I was still a little bit sleepy, but nonetheless intrigued.

"Ahm, tell me more," I replied.

This is how Nathaniel Whittemore, an entrepreneur and blogger, entered my life. Nathaniel explained that his flight from London to southern California had just been canceled and that he was stuck in London along with many of the attendees of the Skoll World Forum, a major annual conference for social entrepreneurs and thought leaders held at Oxford University. Most of them did not know many people in London, and had their schedules clear. "So why not organize an event to bring them all together and make the best out of the situation?" he asked. By then, Nathaniel had already written an email along those lines to the TED team, whom he had briefly met a few years earlier.

To my amazement, within thirty-six hours, Nathaniel organized the first ever-and probably last-"TEDxVolcano" conference, a spontaneous version of the popular TED conference. With absolutely no budget, over a weekend, and with few direct contacts in London, Nathaniel turned a challenging situation into an event with two hundred top attendees, hundreds more on the waiting list, speakers including eBay's first president Jeff Skoll, and a recorded livestream that was watched by more than ten thousand people.

While this was amazing in its own right, two questions occurred to me: How did he do this? And what can we learn from it?

Nathaniel, like all of us, had encountered something random and unexpected in his life-in this case, an unforeseen and unplanned-for period of time in London. But he had the sagacity-the perceptiveness, the creativity, and the energy-to turn it into something positive. Most of us may not have seen the potential trigger for serendipity in such a situation. Nathaniel realized not only that exceptional people were stuck in London, but also that their experiences could be great stories to tell in the context of TED. And where many may have been deterred by the lack of resources, he used his enthusiasm and negotiation skills to convince a local coworking office to donate space for the event, used the innovation community Sandbox to recruit volunteers, and enlisted top people like Larry Brilliant, the former executive director of Google.org (Google's charitable arm), to give extemporaneous talks. Nathaniel's ability to connect the dots produced a world-class event with no budget within a day and a half, in a city where he previously had a limited network. This precis is only half of the story, to which I shall return later in this book, but the important point to make here is that encounters such as these happen more often than we realize.

For example, Dr. Nico Rose, a German organizational psychologist, was on a business trip in 2018 when he ran into former world heavyweight champion boxer Wladimir Klitschko in the gym of a Boston hotel. Though he was jetlagged and had gone to the gym to battle it, Nico nevertheless immediately recognized Klitschko, one of his idols. He hurried back to his hotel room to fetch his cell phone, planning to ask for a selfie if he could do so without disturbing Klitschko's training routine.

The ideal moment arose when Klitschko's manager entered the gym and spoke to the boxer in German. Nico gathered that the pair did not know where breakfast was served in the hotel. He took the opportunity to explain to them in German where it was. The resulting chat led to a selfie, and off they went to do their separate workouts. When they had finished, Klitschko couldn't find the elevator-so Nico walked with him and they chatted further. At the end of their time together, Klitschko asked Nico to introduce him to the corporate university where he worked for speaking opportunities. In turn, Nico told him...