Setting off Serendipity Bombs (F4T)

While researching at my job I stubled upon Medium, a new invitation-only social network. 

Social networks have dramatically lowered the bar for sharing information with people around the globe. But has the bar slipped too low? That's the question posed by Medium, a new, invitation-only network from the creator of Twitter. In an attempt to wean us off of cat photos, Gangnam Style and Justin Bieber updates, Medium emphasizes longer form, carefully crafted content (like this story on growing up in Saudi Arabia) from users with something of deeper value to share. In many respects, it resembles a carefully curated blog network. While creators are limited to the select few, everyone can read and comment.

While looking through the site, I found an article I thought was very interesting called Designing for Serendipity: or Getting Lucky is Hard Work.  For a while I thought some people were lucky because they just were living in NYC and seeing which friends/acquaintances have succeeded the most, I started changing my thinking.  They were usually the ones that were willing to put themselves out there the most.

Here is a quick summary of the article, but I definitely suggest reading the whole thing. It is short and sweet.

- If you put yourself in many situations where you can get lucky, e.g. the equivalent of buying a bunch of lottery tickets, you’ll probably get lucky.

- When you work towards a goal, really hard, things start to happen.  Those things are not happening because of luck.  They are the result of the hard work and putting yourself out there.

- Serendipity bombs are those small things you do that can potentially spark a chain of reactions.  For example, if you own a small pottery company and you email 100 bloggers for a giveaway, chances are a handful will write back that they want to participate   That exposure may ultimately get you sales and a bigger fan base.

- Don't take it personal when people say you are lucky and don't acknowledge your hard work.  It will happen.  

Like one of my favorite quote says: "Work in Silence.  Let success be the voice."

You can read the entire article here.