Embrace Serendipity

Understand what it is, detect it and put it to good use.

What is Serendipity? It is a happy accident. Something interesting or valuable that you encounter by chance. Without seeking it. Something happens and it benefits you. It is an unexpected opportunity. It is an accidental discovery. It is a solution to a problem that comes to you at an unexpected place, time, or manner.

The first time the word serendipity was used appears to be by Horace Walpole, an English writer who referred to the old Persian name for Sri Lanka — Serendip. Based on a Persian fairy tale the Three Princes of Serendip, it was first translated into Italian and then into English. The rabbit hole goes deep here — Amir Khusrow, who wrote the Hasht Bihisht, which includes the tale, based his work on Nizami’s Haft Paykar or Bahramname (part of which inspired Puccini’s opera Turandot), which, in turn, was based on Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh. This is a rabbit hole that goes on and on, so back to the subject at hand.

So Walpole comes up with the word serendipity to signify the fortunate discoveries the brothers come across without necessarily seeking them out.

Serendipity is not exactly fate. Fate implies a force that predetermines what will happen, while serendipity stands for the unintended or unexpected, but fortunate experience. It is similar to luck, but luck can be good and bad, while serendipity is only a positive occurrence.

We can think of a lot of such incidents in our lives. When I was 20, fresh out of university, it was time to start looking for jobs. I did not know where to start, and being a graduate of the department of Oriental Sciences specializing in the Arabic language, I was thinking about foreign service. As I was enjoying that summer, a friend of mine gave me a call and told me about this job announcement he had seen in a newspaper. A United Nations organization was looking for an interpreter who spoke Arabic and I applied and was recruited. It has been 24 years now that I have been working for UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Serendipity. My friend seeing a tiny advertisement in a newspaper that he did not even check regularly — a fortunate accident that changed and defined the course of my life.

Rarely do our lives follow a straight line. Especially these days. Gone are the days when you would graduate from school, get a steady job, marry someone from your town, have children, and retire as your child takes over the family business. That used to be a reasonably simple, straightforward life. The lives we lead today, especially for those of us who live in urban centers, are faster, more erratic, and full of hidden possibilities and unexpected challenges. It has become way more difficult to “force” a life that you or your parents envisage for you when you are a child. Well, it is only going to get more and more difficult given how much faster and more complex the world is getting.

So there is value in being open to chance encounters that may bring unexpected opportunities. Welcome serendipity into your lives. Learn to recognize such chance opportunities and take advantage of them.

How to do that?

Be curious, be receptive. Explore. Ask questions. Observe the world. Try to look at the world around you with an open mind. Don’t dismiss chance encounters. When trying to solve a problem, if you feel stuck, try something new, something different. Look for inspiration and insight in the tested, but also some fresh places. Go for a walk, visit a bookstore, spend time with your friends, or just change things up. Engage. Interact. See what comes your way and maybe give you a new perspective, a new angle to get back to your problem. New knowledge and new experience can help find different solutions. Something worth reading up about (try Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s books for example) is just how many of the important inventions were the results of serendipitous circumstances.

Dig deep into your interests, don’t just dabble. Explore and research. Learn and practice. As you explore your passion, what you learn in an area you have strong motivation about may have unexpected benefits for other aspects of your life. You may be able to make connections that other people simply would not see.

Make sure to give. The world is anything but fair. There are a lot of people you could support. Be generous, support others, open doors for them, listen, encourage and empower. Learn to keep your mouth shut every once in a while — something I need to work on.

Be present. Be here. Now. Slow down. Sometimes it is simply because you are not aware of where you are or what you are doing that you miss opportunities. Your mind is away, bring it here. Even routines are full of little surprises. Pay attention when you commute, when you are out for a walk, and when you are in a large group of people. Pay attention and you might spot that one little thing — serendipity — that will trigger action, and motivate you to learn, act, to move in a certain direction.

Let’s be clear, I am not saying just walk around the streets and you will come across something helpful. While that is not impossible, I would not recommend spending all of your time wandering aimlessly. What makes serendipity different from luck is agency. It is that you decide that something that you just saw. That what just happened to you has significance uniquely for you, for your life. Then you act to turn this chance encounter into something positive. Without this active element, if nothing is up to you, then it is just dumb luck.

So, be curious, have an open mind, actively explore and make sure to give. Above all, be present. Slow down. Don’t underestimate serendipity. Don’t overestimate it. Just pay attention to the world around you. Perhaps the next fortunate encounter is just around the corner.