Let me illustrate using three stories describing what actually happened over the last month.
My friend D. told me that he went to have an in-person 1:1 with his director, and D. noticed a nice BMW in the garage and asked if by any chance the director person wanted to sell — he was! D. told me about it, and I quickly came by to check it out. We went for a test drive and had a nice chat. The director turned out to be a very nice Turkish guy, we talked about this and that, and he mentioned that his three kids all play soccer. I said that I play pickup soccer organized by a couple of Turkish guys who are very good — so good, in fact, that one of them scored the fastest goal ever in a World Cup, in 2002. I promised to share the contacts. A few days ago I played pickup with that same director, and turned out my friends coach his kids on the weekends now!
My friend P. and I went surfing, and then stopped by the surfshop — I wanted a new board. I found a good one and went to the register. “I’m sorry, but we don’t accept Android Pay here…”. P. also did not have a wallet on him. End of story? Well, I decided to message in our work surf chat “Yo, anyone can buy me a board in Pacifica rn?”, and went for lunch. In a few minutes someone named A. replied “yeah I can come down in 5 — I live close by”. A. paid for my board, and I sent the money and offered a round of juice on me. We started to chat, and A. said that he was working in the auto team, the same team P. was actually looking to learn more about. A. shared some contacts, and, long story short, P. is now interviewing with them.
Morale of the stories: do things that create serendipitous situations! Ask you neighbors for a car jack or salt or whatever, offer help when opportunity presents — that sort of thing — it will pay off handsomely, not to mention the fun of the experience itself.
