The importance of looking around.

One lunchtime in 2010 I was walking up Wardour Street in London’s Soho when I thought that the guy who’d just passed me looked familiar. There was something about his beard and shades.

Once I arrived at the cafe around the corner, I tweeted: “I’m sure I just saw @DaveStewart on Wardour St.”

I didn’t expect to get a reply, least of all from Mr. Stewart but a few minutes later Dave replied that it was him.

Eruptions from the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull had closed European air space, and he couldn’t get home to LA. After a couple of days he did manage to fly home, but in the meantime I’d struck up a relationship with Dave’s office. Dave was soon back in London and one Sunday in May I met him at The Soho Hotel for a chat and a coffee. Here’s a little film I made of our conversation:

The story doesn’t end there.

A few weeks after meeting Dave, we connected on LinkedIn. One morning on my train ride to London I happened to see Dave had a new connection, I was curious so clicked on her. Her name was Liz Gooster. Liz was an editor at a publishing house who’d just published Dave’s book. I started following Liz on Twitter.

Later that summer I got an email from Liz. She’d seen me follow her on Twitter, followed me back and was interested in the ideas I’d shared about ‘unplanning’ your business. Was I interested in writing a book about it?

So in 2011, my third book — this one co-authored with David Sloly — ‘Zoom! The Faster Way To Make Your Business Idea Happen’ came out.

‘Zoom!’ only happened because I happened to see Dave Stewart in Soho. It only happened because of the eruptions of an Icelandic volcano. And it only happened because of Twitter.

So look around you, who knows what will happen…