8 Ways to Cultivate Serendipity in Business and Life

When Facebook acquired Instagram for an unprecedented $1 billion three weeks ago, many pundits chalked it up to luck. Two individuals, though, saw it differently.
Thor Muller and Lane Becker, co-founders of Get Satisfaction, the community platform that lets companies participate in an ongoing online conversation with their customers, saw it as not just dumb luck, but rather a series of strategic moves on the part of Instagram leadership that led to the historic acquisition.
Muller and Becker have published a new book called Get Lucky, which outlines the skills and elements we need to begin cultivating luck.
"Luck is a fundamental part of how the world works," according to Muller and Becker. "Open any history book and you’ll find stories of curious people looking for one thing and finding another."
The Search for Luck
When asked about the secret of Google’s meteoric rise, company co-founder Sergey Brin replied that "The number-one factor that contributed to our success was luck." Muller and Becker maintain that Brin wasn’t saying this to dismiss his accomplishments. Instead he was arguing that it requires more to happen than any one person can fully take credit for in order for something to succeed with the scale and speed that Google did.
"What Brin can take credit for," they say, "is being open to serendipity, and being willing to use it to his advantage." They add that Brin combined a passion for his work, a commitment to his organization’s purpose and a willingness to do whatever it takes to find the best way to put those qualities to work in the world.
Planned Serendipity Explained
Those qualities are all part of the skills of what Muller and Becker term "planned serendipity." Muller and Becker believe that planned serendipity is the only way to succeed in our fast-changing world, where so many things are out of our control.
"Accidents happen," they say. "There’s nothing mystical about them—but it’s our practical ability to take advantage of the best accidents that transforms these from forgettable moments into incredible opportunities. This is the essence of planned serendipity, the kind of luck you make for yourself."
That's good news, since most of us have at one time or another envied a competitor who seems to win by sheer good fortune while we keep working tirelessly without ever realizing that sudden overnight success.
The real question is, how can we introduce serendipity into business and life and put it to work? Muller and Becker offer these eight suggestions:

• Motion. Maximize physical and conceptual movement in your workspace.
• Preparation. Focus on breeding and feeding obsessive curiosity.
• Divergence. Minimize fixed plans and goals to allow for changing circumstances.
• Commitment. Choose from all your options the right ones to focus on.
• Activation. Create new activities to open up your awareness of all the possibilities.
• Connection. Optimize the number and quality of connections with others.
• Permeability. Replace the rigid walls most organizations put up to keep themselves separate from other people and organizations with an open exchange of information.
• Attraction. Project your purpose out into the world to draw the best and most valuable events, people, ideas and opportunities toward you.

Making Your Luck
But how do you begin creating a life and workspace open to serendipity?
"Break out of your routine!" they implore. "Routine is the enemy of serendipity."
Muller and Becker add that to take advantage of unexpected surprises, you have to put yourself in a position to encounter the unexpected. This is what they call "the essence of motion," putting yourself in unfamiliar situations, but within familiar environments, to engage with previously unfamiliar people and ideas that are connected to your job, your projects or your interests.
As a practical example of how anyone working away at a job might do this, the authors offer the following advice.
"Visit a different department inside your company. Attend a conference in an area related to your job, or even pick a different place to sit for lunch in the cafeteria each day."
"Here’s a little secret," they add. "No one succeeds without an assist from the unexpected. But every successful person on this planet employs the skills of planned serendipity."
How do you change up your routine? Have you had a stroke of good luck happen lately?

12:43 by Robert dawne · 0

Foursquare Co-founder Naveen Selvadurai Checks Out

Three years after launching Foursquare in New York City, co-founder Naveen Selvadurai announced that he is leaving the company.
During his tenure, the Foursquare community grew from roughly one hundred Beta testers to 15 million people using the check-in service and 750,000 businesses on the merchant platform.  The site has logged more than 1.5 billion check-ins to date.
With over 100 employees, the growing company has moved its headquarters to a bigger office in SoHo and added a satellite office in San Francisco.
GigaOm writer Om Malik was suspicious when when Spark Capital, one of Foursquare’s investors, bought $50 million worth of employee stock last month. Today, Selvadurai confirmed in a blog post that he would be leaving the company at the end of the month.
“After three years, I feel I’ve done all I can do and I’m moving on,” wrote Selvadurai. “[Co-founder Dennis Crowley] and I have been discussing timing for a while, and we decided that now, on this anniversary, it feels right to begin the transition.”
Selvadurai will oversee the release of a few “final projects” before he leaves, and will remain on the board of advisers as the rest of the company moves forward.
“But spring is time for things that are new,” Selvadurai continued, “and I realize that I have a desire to do something new as well. I’m not sure about my exact next steps, but I’ll probably get back to what I love most – being an entrepreneur, learning and building new things.”

15:03 by Robert dawne · 0

Facebook Co-Founder Eduardo Saverin Talks To CNBC

Last we’d heard, Facebook Co-Founder Eduardo Saverin had to refrain from discussing the social network with members of media as part of the terms of his settlement. He sspoke to CNBC anchor Brian Sullivan about Facebook’s potential for growth, along with plugging some of the consumer applications he is currently backing.
In an interview that aired this morning on CNBC’s “Worldwide Exchange,” Sullivan asked Saverin how big Facebook can be, and he replied:

I think it can really be as big as we can imagine. If you look at the company itself and the space, it’s in the very early beginnings, and there are just a lot of things to get done. What Facebook has really done today is allowed us to have identity on the Web. Now there’s our passport, and that includes a bunch of different things that we do, such as our social graph, our people around us, the things that we like, and there’s a lot more to do.

In terms of user growth, you have the limit of the world’s population. So I think both will take place. I think it’s going to expand in terms of user growth, but I think really one of the things that’s fairly unique is that we’ve just touched the surface in terms of what type of applications and uses the social graph and what Facebook has done can help with.

And speaking about two applications he is currently backing, credit-card-processing app Jumio and shopping decision aide ShopSavvy, Saverin added:

Even though Facebook has grown this big in terms of the use that you can go and take your friends with you, or you can take your interests with you and make that efficient, it’s just in the very early beginnings, so there’s a lot that has to be done. In terms of Jumio, you need to perfect the payment infrastructure both in terms of fraud and in terms of the facility for you to actually pay. In terms of ShopSavvy, you really need to bridge, as an example, ecommerce between the brick-and-mortar sites and what’s happening on the Web and with your friends.

11:52 by Robert dawne · 1

(Founder Stories) Warby Parker: “Why Should A Pair Of Glasses Cost More Than An iPhone?”

If you’ve ever shopped for a pair of prescription glasses, you’ve probably seen first hand how expensive a set can be. Warby Parker’s co-founders are right there with you.
Both fed-up and puzzled over paying hundreds of dollars for a product that’s been around for hundreds of years, the Warby Parker team is shaking up the eyewear industry by selling prescription glasses online, at a price tag of just $95 a pair.
Having crafted their plan during business school, the foursome launched the company two years ago this month. Three weeks after the initial pair went on sale, co-founder, Neil Blumenthal says Warby Parker hit its sales targets for the entire year and adds “we sold out of our top 15 styles in four weeks”. The company has since ramped up to 60-employees.
Two of Warby Parker’s co-founders, David Gilboa and Neil Blumenthal recently stopped by TCTV to give Founder Stories host, Chris Dixon the backstory on how the company got started.
As lifelong eyeglass wearers, Gilboa tells Dixon the group couldn’t understand why “glasses cost more than an iPhone.” After doing some research they realized “there’s a handful of companies that control the entire supply chain.” Not content to roll with the status quo, Gilboa says the team set out to change the landscape by creating “our own brand of glasses …. so we could sell the same product that normally costs $500 for $95.”
However, because their product was only available online, the team had to figure out a way for customers to try on the frames. Blumenthal says their solution was to create a “first of its kind” program “in the US where you select 5 frames, we ship it to you free of cost and you have 5 days to try them on at home, with no obligation to buy.”
Gilboa adds that this process enables customers to receive feedback from people “they trust” (versus paid sales staffers) and as an added benefit, Warby Parker receives “millions of free impressions” from users who post tryout pictures to their social networking sites.
As the interview unfolds, Gilboa and Blumenthal share plenty more insights, so sure to watch the entire video to hear more.
Past episodes for Founder Stories featuring Jeff Clavier, Cyrus Massoumi, Stephen Kaufer, Mayor Bloomberg and many other leaders are here.
Episode II of this interview is coming up.

 http://techcrunch.com/

14:18 by Robert dawne · 0