(And how to invite more of them into your life)

You’ve felt it before: that moment when the universe hands you exactly what you needed, even though you never saw it coming.

You think of an old friend → your phone lights up with their name.

You stumble across a book in a café → it answers the question you’ve been wrestling with for months.

You take a wrong turn → and end up discovering your new favorite street.

That’s serendipity.

The word might sound fancy, but it just means “a fortunate, unexpected discovery.”

And it’s also behind many of the greatest inventions, careers, and love stories in history.

Six Flavors of Serendipity (With Real-Life Examples)

1. The Classic “Oops, That Was Brilliant” Accident
→ Penicillin (a forgotten petri dish covered in mold)
→ Post-it Notes (a failed super-glue that was only mildly sticky)

2. Looking for One Thing, Finding Something Better
→ Pfizer trying to cure chest pain → accidentally invented Viagra
→ An engineer’s melting chocolate bar → the microwave oven was born

3. The Right Person at the Right Moment
→ A broke Oprah Winfrey walked into a radio station for any job and was overheard reading the news → the rest is history
→ Steve Jobs taking a random calligraphy class → the Mac became the first computer with beautiful typography

4. The Prepared Mind (a.k.a. “Luck Favors the Curious”)
You’re on the same beach as everyone else, but because you know geology, you spot the meteorite that looks like a plain rock to others.

5. Two Random Ideas Colliding
→ “I can’t get a cab in Paris” + “I know how to build phone apps” → Uber
→ “We can’t pay rent” + “All hotels are sold out” → Airbnb

6. Everyday Tiny Magic
You’re humming a song you haven’t heard in years → it starts playing in the grocery store.
You’re stuck on a problem, step away for coffee, and overhear the exact sentence you needed.

Why Serendipity Feels Rare (But Doesn’t Have to Be)

Most of us walk through life with headphones in, schedules packed, and eyes on our phones.

We’ve accidentally engineered serendipity out of our days.

The good news? You can design your life to get more happy accidents.

How to Generate More Serendipity

1. Create “slack” in your calendar
Leave empty hours with no plan. That’s where the magic sneaks in.

2. Talk to strangers (yes, really)
The person in line behind you might become your co-founder, spouse, or best friend.

3. Follow the spark
When something mildly interesting catches your eye, a book title, a side street, a random class, go explore it. Curiosity is serendipity’s best friend.

4. Keep a “serendipity journal”
Write down one tiny coincidence or unexpected gift every day. You’ll start noticing how often it actually happens.

5. Say yes to the detour
Take the longer walking route. Accept the weird invitation. Try the restaurant you’ve never heard of.

6. Stay a beginner at something
New hobbies, new cities, new languages, beginner’s mind is wide open to surprises.

Final Thought

Serendipity isn’t something that happens to the lucky few.

It’s something that happens to the people who leave the door cracked open.

So leave a little room in your life for wrong turns, weird conversations, and failed experiments.

Some of the best things that will ever happen to you are waiting just off the path you planned.

Go get delightfully lost.

The universe has been trying to surprise you all along.

What was the last happy accident in your life? Drop it in the comments.