Unwittingly perhaps, Kurt Vonnegutt once offered some excellent career and marketing advice.
In Vonnegutt’s God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, Mr. Rosewater Sr. realized early that his grandson Eliot lacked all the skills necessary to succeed in business. Fortunately, he saw one ray of hope for Eliot. There was one way that his hapless grandson might succeed.
“Eliot, one day an enormous sum of money will change hands,” grandad told Eliot at age 21. “Make sure you are in the middle of it.”
Mr. Rosewater’s advice was echoing in my brain when a graphic artist recently asked me for career advice.
I said, “Just get out there in opportunity’s way. Let it hit you.”
For all the talk about plans, dreams, and schemes for success, much of success in life comes from accident. Sometimes, success is just a matter of the seat you’re assigned on a flight to New York one afternoon.
People don’t want to spend time making decisions. They have little time and less each year. Someone meets you, likes you, and hires you. Some people propose after first dates, after all. Many people in business move just as fast.
This is the Collision Principle. Get out there–period. Eventually, luck will hit you.
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