Serendipity And Personality: People Who “attract” Valuable Discoveries

Serendipity and personality share a bond. The magic of finding something unexpected and valuable almost accidentally responds, according to experts, to factors that go beyond the causal. In fact, it would be us who, with our determination, ingenuity and determination, would promote these exceptional discoveries.

Louis Pasteur used to say that “chance favors the prepared mind”, and he was absolutely right. The world of science, for example, is full of incredible discoveries. Alexander Fleming and penicillin, Wilhelm Roentgen and X-rays, Cyril Astley Clarke and his work in preventing Rh disease in the newborn… We could give hundreds of examples of how serendipity promoted the most relevant discoveries.

However, there is always one element in common: wit, perseverance and that mind capable of seeing in mere chance a great possibility. There is no magic; what there is is the commitment of an awakened mind that always knows how to see beyond, that is receptive to its environment and that is able to expand perspectives to perceive new approaches.

How are serendipity and personality related?

We could say, without a doubt, that the area where the most accidents usually occur is in the pharmaceutical industry. One of the most notorious cases of recent times is, without a doubt, Viagra, a drug originally created to treat angina and today one of the most sold in the treatment of erectile dysfunction.

In the scientific field, it is known that chance is a factor that is always present, but it is an element that the researcher generates and that only the most experienced will know how to take advantage of.

William Shakespeare himself already said in his work Julius Caesar that only people capable of joining the tide make a fortune. Therefore, serendipity is not for everyone and valuable finds are only for those who are prepared to seek them.

Interestingly, it must be said that today we even have a body called “The Society of Serendipity”, which aims to investigate these phenomena and understand the relationship between serendipity and personality. It is a network of academics from around the world who, in the fields of psychology, psychiatry, physics or medicine, are trying to understand these remarkable and inspiring events.

These are some of the data that can help us to understand it better.

People who create their own opportunities

Serendipity and personality are related through ingenuity and the ability to break with the established, the expected or the normative. This requires innovation, it involves a challenge. You need an open mind as well as a child’s spontaneous curiosity.

Santiago Ramón y Cajal himself would say that a favorable finding occurs only in a context of inspiration added to the opportunity to be in the right place at the right time. Therefore, several factors combine and what is needed, above all, is a clear predisposition and commitment to the task.

Studies such as the one carried out by Dr. David R. Colman, from the Montreal Neurology Institute, describe us and remind us that serendipity, although a mysterious phenomenon, is more present in our daily lives than we can imagine.

Happy coincidences in willing minds

The origin of the word serendipity, translated as “serendipity”, comes from a Persian tale called The Three Princes of Serendip (Serendip is the Persian name for Sri Lanka). It was Horace Walpole who used this term in a letter to diplomat Horace Mann. He did it by relating this word to the magic of chance and those happy coincidences where you look for something and find something much better.

The story of the Three Princes of Serendip tells how three brothers solved problems and difficulties in extraordinary ways. Horace Walpole attributed these feats to chance, to that chance that always seemed to favor the brothers. However, if one dives into this story, they will immediately realize that this is not the case. The three princes were wise, skillful and tremendously ingenious.

Serendipity and personality share a common bond that is open-mindedness. It’s the same mind Sherlock Holmes used to solve his cases. When something unexpected happens, Holmes uses that scientific method by which he can go back in his mind and reconstruct the possible effects that shape those causes. There is ingenuity, creativity, not just an openness to experience…

People to whom great serendipities happen encourage them, generate movement and opportunities, are active and have many resources. So let’s keep this in mind: to find these happy coincidences, you need to know how to listen, see the world in a curious way with the mentality of a true explorer, someone who is not afraid to explore new paths…