Serendipity
Expect the unexpected

Our topic of this year’s As Far As impact weekend:
Cultivating serendipity for innovation, impact, and “smart luck.”

At the beginning of this year, I stumbled upon our new topic. Alev Dogan, hosting “Der 8. Tag,” interviewed the serendipity scientist and bestselling author Prof. Dr. Christian Busch. They talked about his new book, just published in Germany, “Erfolgsfaktor Zufall – wie wir Ungewissheit und unerwartete Ereignisse für uns nutzen können.”

This year’s edition is for entrepreneurs, artists and friends who want to cultivate the mindset of serendipity. We will train our mental muscles towards unpredictability.

If you are as concerned about the following questions as we are, you will come to the right place:

  • Modern life is full of chance encounters, changing plans, delayed journeys, human errors and other mishaps. But what if we could use such unpredictability to our advantage?
  • We are asking, how do we strengthen ourselves in times of uncertainty?
  • How do you treat the unexpected?
  • How are your decision not guided by anxiety but by optimism?
  • Do you embrace uncertain situations?
  • Do you see opportunities when others don’t?
  • Innovation often comes by chance, and you only have to see it. Do you?
  • Can we establish a counterforce to the virus of anxiety?
  • How do we cope personally with the challenges ahead of us?

 

LSE and USC professor and serial entrepreneur Prof. Dr Christian Busch has spent a decade exploring how, if acted upon, unexpected encounters can enhance our worldview, expand our social circles and create new opportunities. At our impact weekend, Christian reveals how we can learn to identify, act on and share serendipity – and use uncertainty as a pathway to innovation, impact, and “smart luck.”

About the Thought Leader

Prof. Dr. Christian Busch, NYU Professor and Author, The Serendipity Mindset

Prof. Dr. Christian Busch loves connecting ideas and people. He is the bestselling author of “The Serendipity Mindset: The Art & Science of Creating Good Luck” (German version: “Erfolgsfaktor Zufall”) – “a wise, exciting, and life-changing book” (Arianna Huffington) that provides “excellent practical guidance for all” (Paul Polman, former CEO, Unilever) – and his work focuses on sustainable innovation, purpose-driven leadership, and serendipity. He is the director of the CGA Global Economy Program at New York University (NYU), and also teaches at the London School of Economics (LSE). He is a cofounder of Leaders on Purpose and the Sandbox Network, and a former director of LSE’s Social Innovation Lab. His work has been featured by outlets such as the Strategic Management Journal, Harvard Business Review, Forbes, The Guardian, and the BBC. He is a member of the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Expert Forum, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and on the Thinkers50 Radar list of the 30 thinkers “most likely to shape the future.”

Twitter: @ChrisSerendip
www.theserendipitymindset.com