IN THIS EDITION:  Have you experienced the joy of serendipity?  and more...
Missed our previous newsletter editions. Click here  
Have you experienced the joy of serendipity?
The Quest for Adventure
Man is a nomadic creature since time immemorial. The wander bug has bitten him time and again. His quest to traverse new horizons, scale new heights, plumb new depths is legendary. Why does he do it?

Often it is the constant challenges thrown at him in his travels that act as motivation to keep that fire in the belly going. Rarely though, it is what he comes across which puts a smile on his face, that makes his travels fulfilling and eventful. It is said that travel results in a invaluable collection of rich life experiences. These occurrences leave an indelible impression on the person. They are often serendipitous journeys and happenings.

What is Serendipity though?
Loosely stated, Serendipity is finding something good without looking for it. It is the realization of wonder and joy in an event or happening after it has occurred - the commonly known "pleasant surprise." But it is way beyond that! It is finding yourself in a place of enlightenment, a state of flow  looking back at what turned out to be fortuitous moments and events.

Serendipity is associated with embracing what is outside a comfort zone, to allow for what cannot be predicted nor controlled. It requires a particular state of consciousness which embraces  new and novel life experiences. It literally is a moment when you reflect and remark "How did that happen" and more appropriately "I am so delighted that happened." bringing a wave of positive emotion with it. Feeling serendipitous is a gorgeous gift unto oneself.

State of Consciousness
Chance encounters, random events often have forged the strongest bonds of friendships. Many have led to the formation of life partnerships. Yes, serendipity is alive and kicking though not frequent. But it needs the opening up of one's consciousness to experience that state. In our rigmarole driven, frenetic life style, unfortunately, serendipity often has to make its appearance sporadically. For those who it touches though, they are never the same again.

When you have rare moments of solitude (in this 24/7 digitally driven world), reflecting upon some of the happenings in our lives throws up some astonishingly serendipitous happenings. It is just that we never notice them.

A Unique version of Serendipity
As one of the greatest icons of the digital age the late Steve Jobs had his own take on serendipity. In what is one of the most stirring and life changing commencement speeches ever delivered, Steve Jobs' delivery at Stanford University had among many gems this one: "you must trust that the dots will somehow connect." According to him, you must believe in something and throw your entire passion and effort into it with the conviction that somehow the dots will connect. His personal example to this was his decision to drop out of school to join a calligraphy class - he was fascinated by how writing was displayed on a personal computer - a decision which was deemed by his nears and dears as the act of a person who had lost his way and was wasting his life. Decades later when Macintosh made the personal computer a household device with a unique graphical user interface and a stunningly beautiful set of fonts the like of which had never been seen, Steve Jobs connected the dots beginning with his class on calligraphy. It is one of the most inspiring thought processes of any person past or present. It etched Steve Jobs contribution indelibly in the minds of millions who were touched by his prolific digital device turnout.

My Serendipitous Moments
From time to time serendipity has struck me as well. This is almost spookily the way the late Steve Jobs described it: "trust that somehow the dots will connect."

From the time I learned to work on a Personal Computer (a colleague at my hotel in Goa, India taught me the basics of a spreadsheet program - the ubiquitous (then) Lotus 123 - I was hooked fair and square. I started buying up software programs on productivity, presentation and so on. But the one software application that mesmerized me was the video editor. I was fascinated by how the individual frames made up a full video movement. I became obsessively working on these applications and was in about three to five years able to produce reasonably close to professionally edited movies. I bought a powerful HD Sony Handycam camcorder later to be replaced by a hard disk based HD camcorder of the same brand. To import footage shot with the camcorder into my PC (later to move to a Macintosh), edit them and watch them turn into movies was magical for me.

However, soon responsibilities of holding a job with hectic travel schedules did not allow me to pursue my passion. A decade or more later and after we moved to the US, I was wondering how I could harness my video editing passion in my business - I had set up my teaching and training company. And then all of a sudden (as it does always!), serendipity struck in the true Steve Jobs version of connecting the dots. I knew I could and eventually did start designing and recording videos for my training business - now universally known as webinars. A moment of true nirvana indeed for me!

Let me leave you with this comforting thought.
Have you opened yourself to this wondrous state of flow called serendipity?

If you did, I promise, you will have experienced one of life's greatest joys!
.
The Process is King!
When is a flower most beautiful?

Goals and targets always get the press. It is more fashionable to talk about what you are aiming at compared to anything else. After all, ours is a results driven society. If you put in a monumental effort but the end result was not what was expected, you hardly get any points (brownie or otherwise) for the effort.  It is rather sad that this state of affairs exists. If you give it some thought and reflection, it is the effort that moves the needle as far as the endeavor is concerned.

Effort is represented by the process. Process is the methodology adopted to bring a particular venture to fruition. Thomas Edison (the individual with the highest number of personal patents to one's credit) once famously said: "Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Perspiration is of course the process, the little stepping stones that move you (or should be moving you) towards your goal.


Our Results Driven Society
Contemplate for a moment that you are at the beginning of a project with a specific result and a corresponding deadline. How would you plan to get to the finishing line from where you are? The obvious answer is by plotting the steps you should be taking and measuring your progress along the way. So, you would need the process to help you produce the results. In particular, if you have a specific deadline, as most projects do, you will need to give the process much deeper thought than merely knowing them as "steps."

In Project management circles, a common method utilized to prepare a summary plan of action towards the goal is to set out what is known as a "critical path." Put simply, a critical path is the longest time it will take to complete the project, a kind of worst case scenario. How does that help? Well, given the limited quantum of resources, particularly time, at your disposal, it helps to know how long a project will take if everything that can go wrong does go wrong. This way, the process helps to provide a blueprint of, say, the shortest possible and longest possible execution.

 
The Journey is more Exciting....
It is said that the journey is more exciting than the destination. It is even said that the most satisfying and happiness generating period is from the time a goal or target is set and you are in the process stage.  That period of anticipation and adrenaline pumping excitement trumps even a successful completion of the project. You are then in the quest of going on the process of yet another project journey.

Abraham Maslow in his most famous of theories - the self actualization of a human talked about how striving to reach self actualization kept man on the journey of life in a continuous process. Once basic needs are met in the form of food, clothing and shelter, a human aspires for comforts and then to luxuries and so on. In this never ending tryst, a human achieves his or her highest point by reaching self actualization. This again emphasizes the power of the process and how it can be so inspirational.
 

The Misconception about Failure
It is inconceivable that a human endeavors for anything and gets  it first shot. Failure is part and parcel of any endeavor and therefore process. In fact, research is showing more and more that failure teaches you more than success. This is not to say that you must keep failing. All it means that your effort should not be held back just because there is possibility of failure. Failure at some stage or the other is going to show up, but if you regard it as something that you will learn from while at the same time giving it your best effort, you will have adopted the most sound approach to success itself.

The Greatest Process Genius of All
If you want to be convinced more about the power of process, just take a look at the greatest process genius of all, nature. Have you ever seen nature hastening to achieve her goal? Notwithstanding everything else going on in the universe, nature goes about her tasks with a single mindedness of purpose and a reverence for the process. For example, from the planting of the seed to the blooming of a flower, every step of the way has its own gestation period. You can jump about and get agitated, however, nature is unruffled and yes unrelenting. She will demand of you to go through the entire process of the seed being watered and nurtured and becoming a bud which finally will bloom and become a beautiful flower. It is ironical that we tend to see only the beautiful flower as the result but not nature's process in the background which actually made it bloom. It is that unfortunate obsession with results and results only.
 
Let me leave you with this thought.
Have you been paying more attention to results than the process in all your projects?

Have you stopped enjoying the journey in your obsession with the destination?
Indeed an enlightenment that may shape a new approach to life's endeavors.
 
WHAT'S COOKING AT IGNITE-INSIGHT?
PLAY a GAME and learn financial concepts! Know more
NEXT ISSUE: What I learned from my favorite teacher and more..