This content was created by GHION.AI . This content was uploaded by GHION.AI . This is a YouTube talk titled "Ted Zoller: Take Advantage of Serendipity" (recorded Feb 7, 2012). It contains a presentation by Ted Zoller about how entrepreneurs create and exploit serendipity by preparing their minds and actions to seize opportunities. He references Louis Pasteur’s phrase “chance favors the prepared mind,” Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Discourses, and shares personal reflections about the need to act quickly rather than overplan so competitors don’t get ahead.
Chapters
The next piece is serendipity. And I can't really teach you this, but serendipity plays a huge role. And I disdain the idea that entrepreneurs are lucky, that it's all about luck. I don't think that's true at all. Entrepreneurs take advantage of serendipity. Let me explain what I mean. I know so many entrepreneurs who are like the Forrest Gump, remember the scene when he was meeting John F. Kennedy and he had already met, I guess, President Johnson or what have you or vice versa. He says, I have to go to the White House again. Right? So, this idea of serendipity is so interesting to me because entrepreneurs put themselves in the position to be lucky. They put themselves in the position to be fortunate. Why? They prepare their minds to take full advantage of that opportunity when it presents itself. So here's Louis Pasteur, chance favors the prepared mind, right? Have you ever thought to yourself for a moment, Have you prepared yourself to be fortunate? Have you prepared your thought pattern, your action agenda so that when that opportunity presents itself, you're ready to grab it? Have you prepared yourself for that moment? The best way I can explain it would be to use Niccolò Machiavelli. He wrote a great book called The Discourses. Has anyone here read The Discourses? Right? How many people have read The Prince? Go back and read the Discourses and I saw one person raise their hand, you raise it again proudly, right? The Discourses was a great book. This was written when he was in prison, the Medici had put him in prison. It was an angry, angry book. He talked about fortune as a set of wheels and those wheels were turning in different directions in different velocities. And a fortunate person is the person who jumps from wheel to wheel to wheel to wheel at the right moment. It makes progress in their life. How many of you are sitting on that wheel right now and the opportunity presents itself and you're just going to stay on it, right? An entrepreneur makes the move. One thing I had to learn as an entrepreneur, frankly, was to make the move. I wasn't prepared. I had to think everything through. I had to plan everything. Before I know it, my competitor is already 4 steps down the road testing it out, trying it. Making it happen while I'm still thinking about it, right?
