The Three Princes of Serendip
“Oh my god!” Isni screams. “Err, what?” I ask in surprise. Surprised because she hasn’t seen a spider, she has just opened our new Wildest Dream website. “Oh my god, look!” She shows me the back of her phone. “Show me the screen,” I ask her, a bit weirded out. “No, look! Look at what it says on my phone case,” she wiggles the phone case at me.
Written in funky colourful writing across her Samsung flip phone is, You Are Exactly Where You Need To Be. Now I was like, “oh my god!” Not screaming – I’m not that kind of guy – but I am equally blown away. Just days earlier, Patrick and I had launched our new Wildest Dream website and those were the exact words on the home page:
You Are Exactly Where You Need To Be.
This felt like a perfect moment for one of those words that we use often but know little about. You know the feeling, when a word perfectly captures an experience, but you’ve never stopped to think: what does it actually mean?
My word was serendipity – Oxford defines serendipity as:
“The occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.”
But to me, chance doesn’t seem to fit, it feels too lucky. Serendipity feels less about blind luck and more about luck coming to those who are put themselves in the right place at the right time. To really understand the true meaning of serendipity, we should look to its origins.
The Three Princes of Serendip
Our journey begins with a Persian fairy tale called The Three Princes of Serendip, written in the 14th century, right at the end of the Islamic Golden Age. The King of Serendip[1] has three smart but untested sons. To teach them the ways of the world, he kicks the three princes out of the castle, giving them the message to go and learn wisdom through experience.
Early in their travels the three young princes approach a walled city in the desert. At its gates a man wails that he has lost his camel. The three princes decide to play a prank on the poor man.
“Does your camel have one eye?” asks the first prince. “Yes!” the man says warily.
“And does he walk with a limp and a missing tooth?” questions the second prince. “You have seen my camel? Where is he?” replies the camel owner in excitement.
“He was carrying a load of honey on one side and butter on the other?” the third prince says with a smile. “Yes! Where is my camel? Show me!” the man shouts.
“We have no idea where he is,” replies the first prince. “Thieves!” shouts the camel owner to the city guards. “If you know so much about my camel, you have clearly stolen it,”
The guards proceed to arrest these three strangers, throwing them in jail to await their judgement. The three princes are brought in front of the curious king of the city, “explain your side of this story,” the king asks.
They explain – in a Sherlock Holmes style of deduction – how they noticed subtle clues along the road towards the city. “Well, the grass had only been eaten on the right side of the road, clearly he was missing an eye.”
The second prince continues, “yes, and there were well-placed tufts of grass remaining out of every chomp. He must have a missing tooth.”
The king straightens in his chair, listening more intently as the third prince continues, “the tracks were of a large camel, yet they were not even, clearly the camel had a limp.”
The king smiles, thinking he will now catch them out asks, “tell me, how do you know the camel carried honey and butter?” The first prince smiles, “ah, that one was easy. On one side of the road flies swarm, and on the other ants. Clearly the camel was carrying honey and butter.”
The King marvels at the smartness of these three young princes. He frees them and praises them for their powers of observation. After years abroad and many more adventures, the three princes return to Serendip. They return to their father’s kingdom wiser and more capable.
But what did the princes learn? They learnt the lesson that true discovery often comes by accident, but only to those prepared to see the clues.
That idea, centuries later, found a new life in the English language. In the 18th century [2], the writer and politician Horace Walpole, inspired by the tale, coined a new word for it: serendipity.
So, why bring up serendipity at all?
Just like a conversation with a stranger on a train that leads to an unexpected connection, or picking up a book that sparks a new passion, serendipity happens only when we make space for it. I almost didn’t go to the dinner with my old colleagues – I love freedom and creativity, but I also don’t love a late night (anyone that knows me can testify to that). But I went anyway as I know that socialising is good for you. It was fun to hear the stories from my old team and how they caught the travel bug from me.
To me, serendipity is everything, it is adventure. Adventure isn’t just about climbing mountains and discovering your favourite view, it is also about inviting serendipity into your life by doing simple things like going to dinner with a friend.
Serendipity reminds me of the quote from Marabeth Quin:
“The day I decided that my life was magical, there was suddenly magic all around me.”
This desire for magic perfectly catches the point of the question, ‘what is your Wildest Dream?’ It is finding the harmony between planning and going with the flow, setting goals and creating space to explore, keeping habits and starting new ones. There comes a time when you just have to trust in the process, to let go, and to anticipate that magical moments will happen.
The princes found clues by exploring and seeing what others missed. I found my next book chapter the same way, in a dinner I almost skipped, in a phone case and a few words I’d typed on our website the week before. Serendipity is adventure. And the more I’ve decided life is magical, the more clues I seem to see.
Deepen Your Curiosity
Richard Boyle does a good job of showing the journey of the tale: The Three Princes of Serendip from Persia to Italy to Horace Walpole.
Steve Jobs does an amazing job of talking about serendipity and sometimes life only makes sense when you connect the dots backwards.
Countless movies cover the topic of serendipity. The most famous being Sliding Doors (1998), and one I watched this week, Lost in Translation (2003).
[1] Whilst the Three Princes of Serendip is a Persian tale, it is set in old Sri Lanka. The Sinhala, or the Lion people, lived on Simhaladvipa, the Island of the Lion People. This is modern day Sri Lanka. Serendip is an old Arabic or Persian name for Simhaladvipa. Interestingly, a lion holding a sword is the prominent feature on Sri Lanka’s modern flag, yet there is no fossil record of lions ever having existed on Sri Lanka.
[2] Horace Walpole would have read the story which came from Persia via Italy in the 16th century. 16th century Italy was in the midst of the European Renaissance. At the time Venice was a melting pot, with ideas flowing in from the Eastern Ottoman Empire and the West. Like the Islamic Golden Age, wisdom through observation and rangeful experiences were the order of the day. Merchant ships unloaded silk and spices along with the equally important stories. One story to be unloaded was The Three Princes of Serendip. In 1557 a Venetian printer named Michele Tramezzino published the first European edition of the tale. It’s fascinating to imagine how the three princes would have fit right into the way of life in renaissance Italy. I have written before about Leonardo da Vinci, the renaissance man, and how he thrived by spotting patterns where others didn’t.
