Forced Serendipity​​

There's a band called System of a Down, who's biggest hit is called, "Chop Suey." As the story goes, the lead singer was suffering from writer's block and couldn't crack the lyrics as he was working on the song. Rick Rubin (of course it was Rick Rubin) was producing the track, and told Serj (the singer) to grab a random book off the shelf, open to a random page, and point to a random sentence. Turns out, that random sentence became a pivotal part of the biggest hit of their career.

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Our mileage may vary, of course. But any time we need a kick of inspiration, we can borrow the same approach.

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I call it "forced serendipity."

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Now, the whole notion of Serendipity is that it's something good that happens when we aren't looking for it — so isn't "forcing it" antithetical? Sure. Maybe. Stop being a grammar-nut and just go with me here.

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The thing is, we know we want something, but we don't know what. So let's take the search for that something out of our hands and see what the universe gives us.

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Grab a random book, open to a random page, and pick a random sentence.

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Now make something out of that. Write a thought leadership article. Write a poem. Create some art, and use the line as the title of the piece.

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Whatever line we pick randomly is the line we were meant to have — because whatever we create wouldn't have happened any other way.

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That's forced serendipity.

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(Repeat often.)