About serendipity in prime numbers

This morning I had a meeting with two friends. The three of us were not in the best of shapes for different reasons.

I was given a night off ( ;) ), and after a hard days of work stayed in my favourite hangout, had liquid dinner and then some drinks.
One of my friends went to an ad agency related networking drinks party and said she had expected me to be there as well.
"You are always everywhere!"
This afternoon I read an interview with Boris and he answered a question about luck.
(read the whole interview here)
I share his ideas on the topic of success and in combination with the assumption of my friend of me 'always being everywhere' in the morning inspired me to write this post. I often think back about how achievements like deals came about. The answer is actually always the same. You met someone via an introduction of X or you overheard a conversation in a bar and mingled with Y, or you stumbled upon an article and that triggered you to email Z.
You encounter opportunities by getting your ass off the couch and by interacting with the world.
In 2009/2010 I spent 25.000 euros on travel to the US. 9 times I visited the west coast that year. Every time I met so many people and stumbled into many different adventures, including my first Burning Man festival. Via friends I ended up in an RV with five people I had never met. Of course my friends could easily follow my adventures via my social media and on one of the last trips of the year, one friend insisted that he would go with me.

We started our trip in Vancouver where we stayed a few days for a Canadian trade show kind of event. After that we rented a car and began driving down to San Francisco.

My friend was full of anticipation, but the trip was not as adventurous as he'd expected. We had breakfast, lunch, dinner and drinks together. We were two guys on a roadtrip. We were always in a conversation, which has a few consequences. In this case, two is not an interesting number. 

This became even more clear when one night in Seattle my friend decided to stay in for a night and I decided to go out by myself. That night was the best night of that trip. I ended up in a Penthouse Suite tub with a night club owner, her friends and a few dogs (yes, strange story).

Open the door for serendipity

The most important consequence about going someplace with two people is that you don't really open the door for serendipity. Basically because there are two pair of eyes looking at each other. With prime numbers (1, 3, 5, 7, etc.) this is impossible and I think that it becomes interesting then, because the number opens the door. If you are there with three, the chance is that two end up in a conversation and that leave one person to wander.

So if you want to get the most out of a n(etwork) opportunity go alone. You can than wander the furthest out of your comfort zone and encounter the most interesting adventures.

And also important; Try to say YES to opportunities when presented.
x
x

More blogs

Calendar

    l
    Tag The Love
    Newsletter

    More blogs

    Load more

    Latest blog >

      Latest pics >