My first time in Riga, Latvia was one of those distinctly unglamorous business trips: a three-hour flight from Brussels, a day of client meetings, a quick hotel sleep before an 8:00am flight home. We would return to Riga a number of times in subsequent years to what became one of our favorite European cities. But no tourist time on this first visit.
My plan is to eat a quick dinner in the hotel restaurant, check emails and then turn in early, given my early morning flight. Weary after a long day, I’m at the entrance to the hotel when a poster pasted on the wall to my right catches my eye. Its bright graphics announce a performance tonight at a local blues club, featuring the “Latvian Blues Band”, with special guest artist “Willie ‘Big Eyes’ Smith”. It is that Willie “Big Eyes” Smith reference that arouses my curiosity. I read on the poster that he is the former drummer and sideman for the U.S. blues legend Muddy Waters in the 1960s.
I had already pictured myself sipping a beer at the hotel bar, so the pull of inertia causes the initial thought of “Nah”. But there is a split second where the curious, adventurous voice in my head speaks up, leading at first to a “Hmm…” and then morphing to “Why not?” So I head to my room to change clothes, and soon I’m on the street in search of the Bites Blues Club.
I tentatively enter this small club around 9:00pm and find a seat at a long table with benches. The place is empty, and there is the band of five or six young musicians and one wiry guy looking to be in his sixties rehearsing on stage. For a full hour I watch as they run through a practice session, with the featured guest frequently stopping a song to coach the young drummer on a certain rhythm he wants to hear in that particular song. And these young guys are really talented! I don’t know if they have lived the Blues, but they can certainly play the Blues! Their front man wears an apron with maybe 12 different harmonicas in small pouches. I later learn that they were the first European band to play at the Chicago Blues Festival.
I’m glad I have arrived early to get a good seat, because the place is packed by 10:00pm – with the exception of my table, curiously empty. Then someone taps me on the shoulder – the club manager, who says, “I’m sorry, but this table is reserved for the Ambassador and his party.” Flustered, I stand to leave, but a man stops me and says, “No problem, we have plenty of room. Feel free to stay!” It is the Ambassador from Spain. For the next few hours, I sit with them as he and his entourage chat with me, shouted over the top of the music blaring from the nearby stage.
At a certain moment, I become aware of what I am in the midst of, in what is almost as an out-of-body experience, feeling a sense of wonder and even joy. I call such occurrences in my life a “pinch me” moment (as in, “Pinch me, I must be dreaming.”) Here I am in Riga, Latvia, in a small blues club, listening to a group of Latvian guys and an old Chicago Bluesman, in the company of a group of Spanish diplomats.
And to think I almost ate a club sandwich and turned on the laptop.
So this was an experience of serendipity. By definition, serendipity is something unexpected that happens TO you – You are a passive recipient of surprising good fortune that happens by accident. But wait: Serendipity would not have happened if I had not resisted the temptation to stay in and had not gone out to check out a tantalizing possibility.
“Making Serendipity Happen” sounds like an oxymoron. But maybe it is more of a paradox – two seemingly opposite things that both can be true. We can sit passively and wait for serendipitous things to happen to us, or we can actively and repeatedly put ourselves in situations where serendipity is likely to occur! This requires managing those “fork in the road” moments that often present themselves – those fleeting instants where the choice is either to slide into the comfortable, the familiar, the usual, or to make that little extra effort to consciously choose to explore the unfamiliar, the intriguing, the unusual.
For me, it is a sense of curiosity and adventure, honed and whetted over years of travel and interactions with other cultures. I’ve been fortunate to have had a career where travel has been an integral part. Last year, on my first visit to Manila, I checked out the subway system, bought a ticket and rode around for an hour. In Johannesburg in December, after some research, I sought out the Maboneng area of the central business district and had an amazing morning coffee and people watching on a sunny summer morning. In Riyadh, I Ubered to a shopping mall with a large supermarket and explored the aisles. In Delhi I accepted the gracious invitation of a colleague and visited an amazing flower market and Hindu temple. I’m drawn to seeking out these experiences because they are almost always overwhelmingly positive and interesting – serendipitous!
Here are a few thoughts on what you can do to up the odds of putting yourself in the path of serendipity:
- Do your homework. You’ll notice in my examples above, I didn’t just go wandering aimlessly but rather did some research to pinpoint interesting places or events. And this is not just applicable to traveling – Keep your radar on to scan for local events and places wherever you are.
- Be observant. Pay attention to your surroundings. If I hadn’t looked around me, I would have missed that Blues poster in Riga and had a very different evening.
- Make a little extra effort to show up. When you’re invited somewhere, is your default reaction resistance? (Mine often is.) Once in Moscow I was invited to an art gallery reception by two female colleagues from a client organization for an exhibition of paintings by a fairly well-known Moscow artist. As I studied one abstract painting, I was startled to clearly see the face (and body) of one of my two hosts! She had posed years before and was a close friend of the artist. It was an evening of interesting introductions and conversations with people I would not normally interact with. And I almost didn’t go…
- Take an interest in other people. I have several friends (and a spouse) who are much better at this than I am. They take the initiative to meet new people and express genuine interest in them, which leads to new relationships and more diverse connections.
Each of these takes a measure of effort, but I believe they can be developed over time. It is a combination of reprogramming our mindset and making certain choices.
I recognize that in our current claustrophobic confinement, it becomes even more challenging, but if you look around you, it can still happen:
- Getting a glimpse into work colleague’s personal lives when their kids Zoom bomb the meeting
- Being able to look out your “office” window and watch those bluebirds over time build a nest, hatch eggs, and send their fledglings off on their own
- Dusting off your bike and getting into nature rather than walking on the treadmill at your shuttered gym
- Participating in events that you once would have had to pay for and travel to, which are now virtual and free
- Experiencing the pleasure of attending a business meeting barefoot
The word “serendipity” was coined in 1754 by Henry Walpole, who based it upon an old Persian fairy tale, “The Three Princes of Serendip”. His description of his invented word to a colleague lends credence to my interpretation: He writes of these princes who make discoveries “by accidents and sagacity”. [italics mine] Sagacity is not an everyday word, but it means discerning, insightful, or perceptive. So pay attention to the opportunities in your daily life to make serendipity happen!