Have no fear so that serendipity can find you

The most unlikely people will come to help you succeed.

The problem is, you can’t predict who they will be. So your job is simply to do the work. Let serendipity do the rest.

I continue to be inspired by James Dyson’s book, Invention: A Life of Learning Through Failure. When I read the following story, I immediately sent it to a friend who had just shut down his startup after four years.

It’s a story about the price of ambition.

Dyson recalls when Mike Page, a banker, came to visit him at his coach house:

“What do you need the money for?” he asked.

I told him I wanted to make vacuum cleaners to compete with Hoover and Electrolux.

“That’s very interesting,” he said. “I’ll let you know.”

He came back about a week later and said, “We’ll lend you £400,000, but you’ve got to sign over your house.”

Dyson went to Bristol with his wife, Deirdre, and a lawyer.

We signed a nasty grey form making everything we had over to the bank in exchange for the money.

It was taking the ultimate risk. With three young children, we could end up evicted from our home. It was heady and scary stuff, even more so when Mike Page upped the loan to £600,000.

They stood to lose everything. It was their last roll of the dice.

When I read this, I wondered if I would ever take the “ultimate risk.” I am actually quite risk-averse, even though some of my choices seem risky to others.

But here is where serendipity struck James Dyson.

Sometime later, Dyson asked Mike Page why he lent him the money when everyone else rejected him.

“Well, you had fought a five-year lawsuit in America, so I could see you had determination.

And I went home to my wife and told her that you were doing a vacuum cleaner without a bag, and what did she think of that? And she thought it was brilliant not to have a bag.”

What Dyson didn’t know at the time was that the bank had actually rejected the request. Mike Page had to appeal to the ombudsman to push it through.

Serendipity came at the most unexpected time, from the most unexpected person – the bank manager.

Useful Idea: Have ‘no fear’ so serendipity can find you

If you believe in something like James Dyson, you will find a way.

But you have to stay in motion. Dyson didn’t get the loan just because of the idea; he got it because the banker saw he had “fought a five-year lawsuit.” The grit created the luck.

When you have no fear, people from the unlikeliest of places will come to you when you need them the most. You will end up working with people you never expected.

As Dyson’s son says about the company’s culture:

“It doesn’t matter if the challenge is making something entirely new, replumbing a house or taking on a powerful multinational − he just gets on and does it. He has no fear. This is the thing we need to uphold... the no-fear culture, the need to be adventurous.”

See you next Sunday.

👋 I’m Harsh. I collect useful ideas to win in business and life.

Here’s where I spend most of my time:

• Ideals Virtual Data Rooms – building a $1B business by helping dealmakers close deals faster

• M&A Community – uncovering personal stories and strategies of M&A, private equity, and investment banking leaders

• Happy Ratio – growing a food company the hard way: profit-first, purpose-led

• Marcellus Investment Managers – evangelizing long-term investing to build financial independence

Harsh Batra
(LinkedIn)