Feature

Fools for Love

Love and money. Everybody wants them; nobody's entirely sure how to get them. Both take hard work, but what if, no matter how much effort you expend, you still find yourself empty handed? You might think the secret ingredient is luck. We prefer the word "serendipity."

According to Dictionary.com,

"We are indebted to the English author Horace Walpole for the word serendipity, which he coined in one of the 3,000 or more letters on which his literary reputation primarily rests. In a letter of January 28, 1754, Walpole says that 'this discovery, indeed, is almost of that kind which I call Serendipity, a very expressive word.' Walpole formed the word on an old name for Sri Lanka, Serendip. He explained that this name was part of the title of 'a silly fairy tale, called The Three Princes of Serendip: as their highnesses traveled, they were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of....'"

Notice that the princes didn't come across their discoveries by sitting around the palace, knitting booties. Serendipity does not come knocking; it requires effort, however small. It requires risk.

Take the story of Lee. A webmaster living and working in Europe, Lee was dreading his first trade show in the United States. He writes that he was "Nervous as all hell and afraid of who or what I was going to see and meet."

The results of the trade show? According to Lee,

"Becoming best of friends with some of the nicest, kindest people I have ever met. Making a heap of business contacts in addition to an untold amount of friends. Moving to the US to be with my partner in biz and in life. All that from being scared shitless of a tradeshow!"

Sometimes the fates require us to rewrite the rules a bit. Take Badabing's story - on how he met his wife, he writes,

"I was in a bar with a date when she walked in with a girlfriend. She had on this really short miniskirt (this was the 70's) and I couldn't take my eyes off of her, and had to really concentrate on being nice to my date. Fifteen minutes later my date had to go to the ladies room, so I raced up to the bar, worked my verbal magic, got a date for the following night, and made it back to my table just as my date returned. That resulted in 25 years of bitch...oh...I mean bliss."

Spazlabz proves that while first impressions may be correct, they aren't everything. He writes,

"First time my wife met me (I was standing guard duty on the gates of a Navy Base) I decided, after much deliberation, to allow her and a friend of hers drop off a sailor at his BOAT, even though they did not have proper identification to enter the facility (am I a softy or what?). At this point she expressed surprise that she had met a Marine who wasn't an asshole.

"I was, though; gave her the old 'You have to exit from this gate for security reasons' and, of course, 'I entered your license plate number in the computer.' Now, I dont know about now, but the only thing we had in our gatehouse back then was a 'toilet', so the computer thing was pure BS.

"They stopped back at the gate; we discussed Marines and assholes, and we got married 6 months later. That was about 100 years ago, even if the calendar calls it 16 years."

Finally, we hear from BooBoo, who writes,

"The guy in my job position in the Montreal office quit and left. They asked me to take over the department in Montreal while running the department in Toronto. Meaning I had to fly back and forth.

Me: 'No way.'
Work: 'Please.'
Me: 'No way.'
Work: 'You have no choice.'
Me: 'I'd love too.'

Met a beautiful girl in Montreal office. Fell in love."

Shorty after, BooBoo moved to Montreal. He and his new love subsequently quit their jobs and went into business for themselves. As the story continues,

"I had a high paying, director position at this medium sized public company. Two months after I quit my job, walking away with a big buy out in cash, the company went bankrupt and closed its doors. We lived happily ever after: We went to south east Asia for a couple months and got married on a beach in Bali, in our bare feet. I got the money and the girl."

Life happens, whether you're involved in it or not. Often it pays to take a risk, to do something even though it frightens you. Happy endings are not guaranteed, but regardless, you may enjoy the journey.