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Hi,
I always thought that the more successful you became in business, the more rational, logical, and measured you would be, but I’ve had a different journey. I started in business very “business-minded”.
I put quotes around business-minded because while there is a perception of what being business-minded means, my journey has been a descent into chaos. Traditionally, being business-minded entails possessing a mindset focused on business-related activities, including entrepreneurship, management, finance, and strategic planning. Individuals with this mindset demonstrate strategic thinking, analyzing situations to identify opportunities and developing plans to achieve business goals while also being willing to take calculated risks.
That’s not to say my successful friends don’t have all those qualities. They do. It just paints a picture of a stodgy old man who sits around a computer studying spreadsheets.
Basically, it brings to mind President Business. Meanwhile, most of my successful friends are closer to Princess Unikitty.
Let me be clear: Princess Unikitty is a killer business being. They somehow keep Cloud Cuckoo Land running even though it is pure chaos, and they do it all with an upbeat smile and a heavy dose of magic. On top of that, Cloud Cuckoo Land works effectively-ish, so much so that many master-builders choose to live there. In the chaos, they thrive.
When I first started in business, I thought it was Lawful Evil, like President Business, but I have found business is more Chaotic Good, like Princess Unikitty. Can you explain why Cloud Cuckoo Land works? No, but it certainly does work…until order is imposed on it.
To succeed, it’s usually better for both your company and your mental health to focus chaos productively than to impose order onto it.
After that article, people asked me what they could even do if the world were pure chaos energy. I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently and I think my business started growing when I embraced that chaos and found ways to embrace it in more productive ways.
Mostly, I have fully embraced a concept I’ve been talking about called “planned serendipity”.
It’s not new. There are articles about it dating back over a decade.
Planned serendipity involves creating environments and processes that encourage unexpected discoveries and insights. Here are some main concepts it offers for putting planned serendipity to work in a business:
