It’s better to think in terms of “allowing” serendipity rather than “seeking” it or “creating” it. Opportunity is all around us, but we have beliefs and habits that block it. The two biggest blocks to serendipity seem to be ego-fear and “other plans”.

The whole notion that plans are something that we should “stick to” makes them distracting enough that I prefer to call them “ideas” or “rough sketches” instead. Personally, I try to avoid having plans for my life, but I have many ideas.

Planning is a Constraint: Buchheit suggests that having a rigid plan can actually be a liability because it closes you off to unexpected opportunities that don’t fit the plan. A hyper-efficient, strictly planned life minimizes the “errors” and “randomness” that actually lead to breakthroughs. Serendipity requires “productive inefficiency.” Sometimes our best decisions are the ones that don’t make any sense at all.

Serendipity is “Found”: The title “Serendipity Finds You” flips the script—it suggests that you don’t need to hunt for luck; you simply need to make yourself findable.