Webster defines “Serendipity” as “the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for.” In short, lovely things happen to us even when we are not actively looking out for it.

Think about it.

Have you met anyone (a friend, a client or someone who is now an integral part of your life) serendipitously?

Have you met a prospective client at a place you were least expecting to?

Serendipity is an important part of our lives. It opens the door for new friendships, opportunities or even things that we might never have imagined. There are many such things that have happened in my life, and I am sure they would have happened in your life too.

This post focuses on serendipity that happens when we do things. Most people do not even start. The common excuse is “Let me Think”. Instead, we should be saying “Let me DO.”

I do not know how many of you know this, but I had produced a Marathi movie called “Cycle”. How did this happen you may ask? I was having a chat with my friend Sangram about his financial goals. One of his goals was to do a movie after 5 years. I asked him “Why 5 years, why not now?” He said “Funding.” I said, “Keep the funding aside for a moment, do you have a great story.” He said, “I have many stories, but there is one that is outstanding.” He told me the summary of the story in exactly 2-3 minutes. I loved it and said, “Let’s DO it together.”

And we DID it. Though this was our first movie, we followed the same principles: build a passionate team, believe in people, respect them, give them the flexibility to work and make their own decisions, and work as a world class team. I will share more about this experience in a future post and workshop but will now not digress from the post.

After he saw the first screening of the movie, Ajit Andhare, COO of Viacom, told me “We are in the business of film making. We know how difficult it is to make movies. Movies like this get made by magic. Hats off to you for making this masterpiece. This movie has to come to us.” We sold a portion of the movie to Viacom and the movie was released in May 2018. “Cycle” is now on Netflix and watched by people not only in India but also in the US and many other places. I cannot tell you the stuff that has happened as a result of making this movie. Though we lost some money overall (The movie was released with Avengers and Avengers literally killed “Cycle” as there were no screens available). People wanted to watch the movie but there were hardly any screens. This is an interesting story too but in some other forum, I cannot even begin to tell you all the great things that happened because of this. The movie won several awards including a National Award and was sent to Cannes for screening. Cycle was loved by a lot of people in the US including many American families (Not of Indian origin) and there were tons of opportunities that opened as a result of this movie.

Out of the blue, a few days ago I received this message.

Hi!!

I would like to take this opportunity to commend all your efforts and goodness in making the movie Cycle. That movie has changed me and so many I know for good!! It was simplicity at its best. The movie taught us without teaching and so much. Each character portrayed the luxury of being human in the best way possible.

I would like to introduce ourselves. We are a spiritual organisation named ABC. Our Guruji, and Guruma are enlightened spiritual masters. They believe that Gyana can be taken from anywhere and so they impart Gyana even from songs or movies. In fact, their kind of spirituality is unparalleled and full of fun. They believe in living life to the fullest and preach to reach the ultimate while living a completely worldly life. They happened to see your movie and were so impressed by it that they asked all their followers to watch this. And you will be happy to know that every scene of your movie imparted amazing spiritual lessons to each one. It has refreshed how life should be lived in the way our Guruji teaches. I can share hundreds of revelations by Guruji’s followers that could leave everyone awestruck. Thank you so much for pouring your heart out in your work. It reflects the goodness of each one involved. Everyone who’s seen it has had the chance to flow in your flow. You have started a cycle of happiness with it! Congratulations!!

This has led to an amazing opportunity that we could have never envisaged. Not just this, there have been many that opened up because of “Cycle”, not to mention the amazing love, respect and belief that people have in us for investing and making a movie like this.

I was recently introduced by an IFA to his friend in the US. During the conversation, the friend figured out that I was the Producer of Cycle and in our first call, he told me “If you are making another movie, let me know. I will blindly invest.” Not just this, there were some who have even sought consulting from us about investing in films, structuring film finance and many other things.

The point of all of this was to let you know that Serendipity is always at work. However, it happens to people who DO things. It does not happen to people who just keep THINKING. Let me actually correct what I just wrote. In fact, Serendipity happens to everyone but only a few ever DO anything about it. Some who keep thinking always keep thinking. There are many others who just ignore it; if you are in the camp who believes in DOING things, you will be blessed with loads of Serendipity. This is a huge source of competitive advantage and is something most will never understand.

P.S. Do watch “Cycle” with your family on Netflix and let me know what you felt. I would love to hear from you.