Finding Opportunity In Chance

April 24, 2012

Interview with Thor Muller, author of the book Get Lucky: How to Put Planned Serendipity to Work for You and Your Business

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Mike Carruthers:
Your life and career are partly the result of planning but also in large part the result in chance.

Thor Muller:
The test of this idea is to ask yourself 20 years ago or 10 years ago did I have plans where I am today?
 

Thor Muller, author of the book Get Lucky...

Most people would admit that they did not have plans, there were key moments where there was an introduction where somebody ended up hiring them, a chance article that they read that introduced them into their field of study. Or a client that has transformed their business into something that they never expected and these kinds of unexpected moments are what define our careers.

So if you look for opportunity in these chance events you can create more success.

So when we hear stories about the invention of the post it note or Dyson inventing a new kind of vacuum cleaner by seeing an inspiration at the dump we see the story of people who saw something they weren’t in control of – chance intervened in their life but they did something with it and that’s serendipity.

And you can even plan more of that serendipity into your life.

So we find companies that have created programs where once a week an employee is asked to have coffee with another employee in the company who they have never met before and they don’t know what they’re going to talk about. And so they find that people when they end up coming together and talking about their respective projects it leads to new ways of looking at their work.

To hear the complete unedited interview, click here.