Serendipity: a mindset for navigating the future
In recent decades, we’ve created more goals than ideas. Believing that setting ambitious targets would bring out our hidden strengths, we’ve instead weakened our curiosity — the muscle that fuels imagination and discovery.
We live in the age of “living by objectives”: profit, performance, success, perfection, happiness. But happiness — like everything meaningful — is not reached, it’s built. And often, it arrives when we stop chasing it.
As J.H. Comroe said: “Serendipity is looking for a needle in a haystack and finding the farmer’s daughter.”
What serendipity really means
“Serendipity” evokes travel, surprise, discovery. It’s the ability to keep an open mind, to notice what happens while we’re looking for something else. It’s the art of seeing hidden opportunities in everyday life and finding meaning not only in results, but in the journey itself.
In a world changing faster every day — where artificial intelligence automates more and more — serendipity has become a strategic human skill. Because while algorithms optimize, humans improvise.
From vision to the unexpected
Being open to serendipity doesn’t mean having no direction. It means having a vision — a flexible picture of who we want to be, guided by values, curiosity, and creativity.
From marketing to real life
Today’s forward-thinking companies are shifting from goal-driven management to opportunity-driven management. In that shift, serendipity is no longer a romantic luxury — it’s a competitive advantage.
Serendipity and the future of human thought
In the age of generative AI, serendipity may be the most human quality we have left. Machines can analyze and predict — but only humans can make creative mistakes and turn the unexpected into insight.
Practicing serendipity means living attentively, with openness and trust in the power of the unforeseen. It’s how we stay human in an increasingly automated world.
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