Maximizing Serendipity
By the age of twenty, George Washington owned 2,315 acres in the Shenandoah Valley. As Ron Chernow said in his biography of Washington, “For a young man who could not afford corn for his horse a year earlier, it was a startling and nearly dreamlike elevation in status.”
Washington grew from modest beginnings, the child of his father’s second marriage and many years younger than his brothers.
At eleven years old, Washington became a frequent visitor to Belvoir, the estate owned by Colonel William Fairfax. The Colonel was the father in law of Lawrence Washington, George’s older brother.
The Colonel recognized potential in the eleven-year-old future president and took an interest in George’s development. He took Washington on fox hunts and shared lessons from Caesar and Alexander the Great, undoubtedly shaping the boy’s military mind.
Young George worked hard to live up to expectations, and at fourteen, the Colonel planned to launch George’s career with the Royal Navy. Washington was happy to continue working hard and going where his benefactor directed, but his mother had different plans. She objected and kept the boy from becoming a sailor.
At fifteen years old, with his family facing financial strain, Washington decided to become a land surveyor.
At sixteen years old, through his relationship with Colonel Fairfax, Washington was contracted to survey a large portion of the Shenadoah Valley. At seventeen, he was appointed the official surveyor of Culpepper County, which made him the youngest official surveyor in Virginia history.
One British scholar remarked, “[Washington] was not an intellectual genius or the heir to a great fortune, [but] he was evidently energetic, reliable, and canny.”
Hard work and an openness to opportunities,paired with the right relationships set Washington on the path to early prosperity.
Serendipity at its finest.
The seeds of serendipity
I recently attended a friend’s wedding. Over delicious food, better dessert, and many drinks, I had the chance to catch up with several close friends whom I hadn’t seen in years.
Shortly after the wedding, I coincidentally read David Perell’s article about maximizing serendipity.
From the article:
“The best opportunities are the ones you never expected.
They’re serendipitous.
Serendipity is a state of mind. Serendipity births unexpected opportunities which fuel progress and push us in fruitful directions. By maximizing serendipity, you’ll accelerate your progress.”
When you’re in high school, you usually fall into one of two categories. You either know exactly what you want to be when you grow up or you have no idea.
Regardless of the things you think you’ve figured out – your college, your major, your future career – there are so many unknowns. So many things yet to be decided. So many things outside your control.
Whatever group you’re in, serendipity will play a strong part in where you end up.
One of the guys I caught up with found himself in a career he never would’ve imagined. He seems to have a high upward trajectory. And it’s the result, at least in part, of serendipity.
The thought didn’t cross my mind when we were talking, but after reading Perell’s article, it clicked. You can maximize serendipity, and he did it.
My friend graduated college with a business degree and no clear idea of what he wanted to do. He had some job offers, but nothing was appealing. So he took a different path. That path started as a one-year stint working for a general contractor. It was a placeholder and a steppingstone.
Then, my friend decided to move to a major city thousands of miles from home. He had a place to stay and a job working as a laborer for his friend, the President of a glass company.
He packed his car and headed west, full of potential and short on certainties, except for the $12 an hour job that was waiting for him.
How to maximize serendipity
Perell talks about two principles for maximizing serendipity. He calls them Zig and Zag and Find the Fast Flow.
By zigging and zagging, he simply means doing unique things.
“Cross-pollinate ideas from different industries, disciplines, and places,” says Perell. “Surround yourself with a diversity of people and develop a variety of skills. The space between ideas will give you a fresh perspective that you can use to problem solve and come up with new ideas.”
My friend chose diversity and cross pollination when he left the security of a predictable career in an office for the unknown of a job in a unique field. He combined his business knowledge from school with his limited knowledge of construction. He combined his small-town work ethic with the leadership skills he cultivated in high school sports. Then he took these qualities to a big city on the other side of the country.
He worked hard to develop a variety of skills throughout his life. Then he applied those skills to his new job, where he added the skills of commercial glass installation to his quiver.
Scrolling back through old text messages with my buddy, I found a conversation from February 2018 where we talked about real estate investing. He closed the conversation by saying, “Keep in touch. I’m always down to talk future, bounce questions off each other.”
That seems like the mark of someone always zigging and zagging.
He found the fast flow by moving from a tiny town to a major city. He took the opportunity that life threw his direction and rode it like a wave. Not knowing where it would spit him out but confident it would get him to shore.
Then he put in the time and did the work. He learned the trade from the trenches. He labored with the crews until he proved himself. Eventually he became a foreman in charge of running his own crew on large commercial projects.
What happened next was truly serendipitous.
He was leading a big job several hours from headquarters when he saw a LinkedIn notification on his phone. It was a message from the owner of an architecture firm in the area. The guy was looking to start a glass business and wanted to talk.
Further conversation revealed the man started his firm at a young age and wanted to bring the same young ambitious attitude to his new venture.
When my friend returned from his work trip,he met up with the man from LinkedIn. After months of planning and getting to know each other, they started a business together. My friend became the president and partner of his own glass company, just four years after starting in the trade.
A product of maximizing his serendipity.
“People who maximize serendipity balance the humility of not knowing where their next big break will come from with the arrogance of knowing that it will come from somewhere,” writes Perell.
The man who my friend originally worked for is well under traditional retirement age. But his hard work is affording him the possibility of early retirement.
“I’m 28 now,” said my buddy. “If I bust my ass and this works out, I might be in a position to do the same.”
I can’t think of a more deserving dude. It’s a story he couldn’t have written himself. A combination of making his own luck and maximizing serendipity.
