If you want to improve your luck, try wandering off the beaten track now and then.

The purpose of this blog is to encourage you to invite a little bungling and serendipity into your life. The word “serendipity” means “happy accident” or “lucky surprise.” It springs from an ancient Persian fable called “The Three Princes of Serendip.”

It seems that the three princes were constantly stumbling into unexpected but fortuitous discoveries. Sailing to a strange country in search of gold, for example, they would stumble across a fabulous diamond mine instead. “Those annoying princes are so lucky,” grumbled their sedentary cousins at home.

But serendipity is not just a fairly tale—it’s the way continuous curiosity, open-mindedness and exploration have always rewarded the adventurous among us. So many famous discoveries or ideas were the result of someone looking for one thing and coming face to face with something even better. A classic example is Christopher Columbus who, while searching for India, stumbled upon North America instead.

Join the Ranks of the Lucky Bunglers

Popsicles, Corn Flakes, Superglue, Radium, Microwave Ovens, Silly Putty, Penicillin, Post-It Notes, Plastic, Cellophane, X-Rays, Rubber, the Internet and thousands of other discoveries or products were actually serendipitous accidents or by-products of seemingly unrelated experimentation.

If you want to improve your luck, try breaking with routine on a regular basis. Don’t be so focused on one thing that you completely overlook something even better right in front of you.

Part of the joy of creativity and innovation resides in the surprises, the unexpected discoveries, the serendipities. So stay open to life’s twists and turns. Discoveries are made not by following directions, but by wandering off the beaten track, by keeping an open mind, and by expecting the unexpected.