Almost all the good stuff happens by chance.
You can pretend that you arranged a quality meeting with someone, but the opportunity that arises comes from a serendipitous conversation (almost always, in my opinion).
Back to the story about when we were building the practice, and I read everything by Cal Newport, the guy who wrote all the books about working environments, silence, and the noise you need in coffee shops. He also did some digital minimalism stuff, which is fabulous.
What he talked about was university environments where people pass in the corridors and then have a conversation, and it leads to something fabulous. There are so many stories like that.
This doesn't happen by chance as much as you think; it happens more by attitude.
If you go into a meeting (with anyone) wondering what might come of it, being curious about their side of the equation or their story, it becomes an extraordinary and wonderful way to live.
It happened twice this week.
I met a new clinician in the practice who is helping us out with some stuff; it's a short-term thing, really, or is it?
As soon as we had a conversation, I thought, 'Gosh, we could work together and do great stuff; it would be really exciting'.
I wonder whether it will go somewhere; maybe it won't, but it's exciting to think it might.
In another episode of this madness, I was on to two guys from Finland. One is a restorative dentist who owns his own practice. He is massively entrepreneurial; he's built something very special, committed to education, and amazing. One of the guys who works with him is a maxillofacial surgeon.
And so the boss (the prosthodontist) is skiing with his family in a hut somewhere in the north of Finland, and the Maxillofacial surgeon (his associate) has popped out of theatre in his scrubs with his mask still around his neck to be involved in this call because it's exciting.
We were able to share jokes and stories about Eddie the Eagle (fancy that), but just chatting to each other and laughing together about what we had in common made us all think that we could do fantastic things.
I asked them if they were going to Paris to the ITI global meeting, and they were, and we arranged to meet.
That was not what the call was about, but what it's become is an exciting opportunity to meet like-minded people, push things forward, and positively influence people with the work that we do and the example we set.
Honestly, it's a crazy life, isn't it? Full of so many terrible things and so many possibilities, all at exactly the same time.
Blog Post Number - 4092