This cafe is on an island in the river in the middle of Geneva. It was last year — I’d just arrived in the city and had an hour to kill. So I decided to go for a walk without a map. I had no idea where I was heading, I just followed my gut. And then I stumbled across this little cafe. That sense of random discovery was really rewarding.

And that’s what curiosity is all about for me. Exploring, taking left turns. Following your gut. And yes often, having no map.

Some people think that ‘curiosity’ is only valuable to scientists, writers and school kids.

But actually it can be a powerful tool for everyone.

Fourteen years ago I quit my job. I left a world where I had a business plan, a job title and stability. And I took the leap into a world of uncertainty. When I quit I had no big plan for what I’d do next. But I knew I needed a tool to navigate this uncertainty.

I needed a compass. And curiosity was my compass.

Being guided by curiosity meant my professional offering didn’t need to be set in stone. I could go where the water flowed, trying my hand at different projects, roles and opportunities.

One opportunity I spotted was writing about business. Not writing about a world of spreadsheets and share prices, but an alternative take on business. Then two years ago I started writing for The Financial Times’ Business Life pages.

But I have a confession.

I’m not a trained journalist. My qualification? My curiosity.

I tell stories about people and businesses who spark my interest. I’ve interviewed Billy Bragg about why musicians need to think like small businesses; I’ve written about the independent coffee scene in London and New York.

But I’m not just guided by curiosity for what I write about but also how I discover stories. I don’t have a grand plan, instead relying on curiosity and serendipity for story ideas. Last year I featured an executive in a story because we were both struggling to get served outside a bar. We started a conversation and I realised she had a good idea for a story.

Being curious is about trying projects and ideas without worrying about the outcome first. Last year l helped start a local meet-up group in Leigh-on-sea. But we didn’t try and work out the outcome first, we didn’t try and calculate the return on investment/ effort. We were just curious about getting local people together. Who cares if it fails? Already the meet-up group has spawned an evening of talks and an online community.

So following your curiosity is about dabbling.

Let me tell you a story.

A few years ago I was interested in meeting Dave Stewart. Dave is one half of the Eurythmics and a real polymath who runs a media business in LA. I had no reason to meet him other than my curiosity (I wasn’t working for the FT then, I didn’t have a professional reason to meet him). I contacted his office to see if I could meet him next time he was in London. But unsurprisingly they said he was busy.

Then one day I was walking up Wardour Street in Soho when I thought the bearded guy in shades who just passed me looked familiar. I got out my phone and hit Twitter.

“I’m sure I just saw @DaveStewart on Wardour St”, I tweeted.

And then I got this reply:

It was at the time of the erupting Icelandic volcano whose ash cloud had shut down European airspace. He was stranded in London.

That ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ moment — for that’s what it was — kickstarted my attempts to meet Dave. And a few emails and ‘phone calls later, we met one Sunday afternoon at the Soho Hotel in London. A friend of mine filmed our chat with Dave and we created a little video (you can watch it here). Again there was no great reason for doing this, other than my curiosity.

After our meeting we connected on LinkedIn; and then, in another blink and you’ll miss it moment, one morning I happened to notice that Dave Stewart had a new contact — a woman named Liz Gooster. Her surname made me inquisitive, so I clicked on her. She was editor of Dave’s new book and I started following her on Twitter.

A few months later on holiday in Cornwall with my family, I got an email from Liz . She’d seen I was following her on Twitter, checked me out and liked some of my ideas that I’d been developing with my friend David Sloly. Did David and I want to write a book? If so, she’d be interested in publishing it.

The next year our book ‘Zoom! The Faster Way To Make Your Business idea happen’ was published. This book only happened because of curiosity.

I was curious enough to tweet that I’d seen Dave Stewart; Dave was curious enough to respond; and his editor was curious enough to check me out.

If I’d had kept my head down and not been in the curiosity mindset the book wouldn’t have happened.

So you don’t need a tangible goal when you do something out of curiosity — just enjoy the ride and see where it takes you.

We have a choice in life.

1) We can walk around with our heads down, doing the same things, hanging out with the same people, never trying new things, never deviating from our path.

2) Or we can notice things around us, we can explore, take random left turns, and be guided by curiosity.

It’s up to you…