Some of the most valuable business conversations I have had started before anybody knew what the business outcome was supposed to be.
That is not an argument against agendas. I like a useful agenda. It is an argument for leaving enough room around the agenda for people to notice opportunities that were not visible when the meeting was scheduled.
I wrote about this after a stretch of conversations among people across independent cannabis media. The interesting part was not a grand plan appearing fully formed. It was people with overlapping problems and complementary capabilities staying in the conversation long enough to see a bigger picture.
Serendipity is not a business model
You cannot run a company by hoping the right stranger appears at the bar after a conference.
But you can create more surface area for useful collisions. Attend the right rooms. Talk to people outside your immediate function. Make introductions without needing an immediate return. Leave a little white space in the calendar. Follow up when a conversation has energy.
The opportunity is still unpredictable. Your exposure to potentially useful people and ideas does not have to be.
Curiosity makes proximity more valuable
Being in the room is not enough if every conversation is a disguised pitch.
The better question is often, “What are you seeing that I am not?” That can uncover a market problem, a missing capability, a useful introduction or an idea from another part of the industry that changes how you see your own.
This is one reason I treat curiosity as an operating skill. Curiosity expands what proximity can teach you.
Generosity changes the network
A strong network is not a spreadsheet of people you might someday need.
Useful introductions, shared context, thoughtful referrals and small acts of help create memory inside a network. They make it more likely that people understand what you are good at, trust your judgment and think of you when something relevant appears.
That does not mean every favor turns into a deal. If you keep a secret ledger for every human interaction, people eventually notice.
The broader idea is in Relationships Are Infrastructure: trust reduces friction before anybody knows which future transaction might need it.
Unstructured time still needs follow-through
The romantic version of serendipity ends with the great conversation. The useful version starts there.
Capture the context. Send the introduction. Schedule the second conversation. Clarify what each person thought was interesting. Give the possibility a small next step before everyday work buries it.
That is the bridge between serendipity and execution. Before You Make the Introduction, Give It a Job is the practical version of that lesson.
You cannot schedule serendipity. You can build a life and a business with more places for it to happen.
Protect a little room for the bigger picture
Companies reward motion. Calendars reward fullness. Conferences reward the appearance of being booked solid.
Some of the best opportunities do not respect any of that.
So I try to leave room for the hallway, the dinner, the introduction, the weird idea and the conversation that does not have a clean category yet. Not because every one becomes something. Most do not.
But occasionally a few people stop long enough to see something none of them could see from inside their own lane. Those are good moments to be available for.
Related: Showing Up Is Still a Competitive Advantage · Relationships & Business Development · The Network Is the Moat.
Original source: Instagram post about stopping long enough to see the bigger picture.