Serendipity — A fancy word for good fortune, something gained unknowingly.
For example — If you attend a funeral of a dead Aunt, who was your Mother’s — Sister’s — husband’s twice removed cousin. Might have chatted with her once, and now she has left you a whole estate in her will. Whoa… what!?
That is a very serendipity worthy expression.
Great, if you were broke and it came as a life saver.
But what if… You didn’t need another home owner responsibility and the added tax liability. The damn thing is at a place where no one really wanna buy it? Whoa…. what!? A head slap is imminent. 🤦🏻♀️
It’s a perspective.
Is Something better than nothing or Nothings is better than something stinky?
My best friend once said that the athletes who win the longest race, are neither the strongest or fastest. They are the bravest. They resiliently keep going longer than the rest. He called it, holding on a little while longer.
But the question still remains, how much is enough holding on? How will you know, if you’ve been holding on enough already.
Edison wasn’t the inventor of electric lights, But after many attempts, his electric bulb was first of its kind for practical, and affordable home illumination. He said, “I have not failed 10,000 times — I’ve successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work.”
A perfect example of resilience. (Easy when you have a lot of money and team of ‘invention factory’ working for you)
On the other hand, Dr. Spencer Silver working on making the strongest adhesive in 1968, ended up accidentally creating the exact opposite. A weak adhesive. Fed up of bookmarks falling off, his colleague Arthur Fry came up with the idea of using it for bookmarks. That’s how we got the Post-It Notes!
I wonder if Silver had ignore his failed result and kept on resiliently attempting to make the strong adhesive, world would have been deprived of a great product.
There is no right path to success, it is just a mindset.
A milestone we set to achieve. If we miss the path and seredipitiously reached somehwere equally rewarding, it would requires an open mind and a keen eye to see it as a success.
It’s not always easy to see the silver lining when things don’t go as planned. However, an attitude of curiosity and resilience, makes it more likely to spot serendipitous moments when they occur.
I’m Sanyukta Stargazer & Here are the Books I enjoyed writing.