Christian Busch

A graphic showing how you find serendipity by Christian Busch, How to be lucky. https://psyche.co/guides/how-to-open-up-to-serendipity-and-create-your-own-luck

"You might think of serendipity as passive luck that just happens to you, when actually it’s an active process of spotting and connecting the dots."

psyche.co/guides/how-t...

Do you have a paper idea on chance, luck, or serendipity? We’re excited to invite submissions for our session at the Academy of Management 2025 Annual Meeting; deadline is tomorrow (July 15)!

Saturday, July 26, 14:00–16:00, Bella Center: Auditorium 10

Submit here: shorturl.at/P78Vj

What if the most transformative learning moments aren't planned?

A great new editorial by professor Sigrid Harendza in the GMS Journal for Medical Education explores the role of serendipity in medical education, and offers a powerful reminder for any field: journals.publisso.de/index.php/en...

“If this was the last day of my life, would I rather have dinner with the important customer or with her"? Steve Jobs' beautiful serendipity story (and our related research) featured in INC.: bit.ly/JobsSerendip....

More on our related research: bit.ly/nextbigideaclub

Delighted that Dan Wadhwani will be the next Director of USC's Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies! Dan is such a great person to carry the center forward.

If you’re interested in entrepreneurship research and practice in LA and beyond, this is your place! www.marshall.usc.edu/departments/...

Wonderful to see how much momentum the serendipity conversation is gaining at this year’s Academy of Management meeting:𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐲-𝐟𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐩𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬 won 𝐁𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐏𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐀𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬 & there are 20ish serendipity-related items on the agenda! If anyone still needs an excuse to explore this space, here it is:)

Some of my favorite moments:

- Neurodiversity as a driver of serendipity ("active luck"), and especially how people with ADHD can excel at connecting dots others might overlook.

- The reminder that small shifts matter; sometimes all it takes is asking a different question.

Life’s twists aren’t always in our control; but how we respond is.

It was a real pleasure to speak at the recent Learn-A-Thon hosted by PayPal, where we explored how "career luck" can be cultivated.

The idea isn’t to chase some forced notion of “always stay positive.” It’s about rational optimism.

A big thank you to the organizers of the Babson Entrepreneurship Conference for an inspiring few days! Beyond learning from so many great conversations, I was grateful for the chance to talk about the 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐜 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐉𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐥 special issue on chance, luck & serendipity: bit.ly/smjserendipity

YouTube video by USC Institute of Armenian Studies The Language of Luck: Cultivating Serendipity with Christian Busch

How we talk about luck—and serendipity—shapes how we experience it.

In this conversation with Shushan Karapetian, we explore how language, culture, and mindset influence our ability to spot and act on the unexpected.

👉 Watch here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzPU...

#SerendipityMindset #Leadership

How can we create "active luck" for impact and innovation? Looking forward to this upcoming NGO Academy talk on The Serendipity Mindset (virtual/open to all). Join us?

🗓️ 21 May 2025 | 🕕 6:00–7:30pm CEST | 💻 Online
🔗 bit.ly/ngoserendipity

There’s also a free, downloadable 𝙎𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙥𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙋𝙡𝙖𝙮𝙗𝙤𝙤𝙠 — with key exercises and practices to help build your “serendipity muscle”: 📘 theserendipitymindset.com/resources/

The updated Serendipity Mindset homepage now includes links to all international editions and translations of 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙎𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙥𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙈𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙨𝙚𝙩: theserendipitymindset.com/books/

But without ongoing support, such as mentorship networks and access pathways, serendipity risks stalling when new systemic barriers emerge.

This has important implications for policymakers: sustainable impact depends on designing opportunity systems, not just one-off solutions.

In our upcoming podcast conversation, we explore how cultivating (compound) serendipity requires embedding structures that allow momentum to build and accelerate over time. A one-time intervention—like offering a scholarship to a student from a less privileged background—can spark opportunity.

“Compound serendipity works like compound interest.” As Gita Wirjawan-Indonesia’s former Minister of Trade and a remarkable lateral thinker- reflected, serendipity often isn’t just about isolated chance moments. It’s about creating systems where opportunity keeps building on itself.

𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝗙𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗼𝗻 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗣𝗮𝗽𝗲𝗿 𝗜𝗱𝗲𝗮𝘀: 𝗔𝗼𝗠 𝗣𝗗𝗪 𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲, 𝗟𝘂𝗰𝗸 & 𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗽𝗶𝘁𝘆

Does your research explore themes of luck, serendipity, or chance? We invite you to join our Academy of Management PDW at the 2025 Annual Meeting–and receive constructive feedback on your work! 📩 Submit here: bit.ly/aom2025pdw

The paper explores a key tension many organizations face—how to enable serendipity without over-engineering it. The study unpacks mechanisms that reveal how employee agency, autonomy, and power dynamics shape when serendipity emerges—or fails to—as a process of individual and collective value-making

Shoutout to Nele Terveen—first author on our new paper on the “serendipity paradox” (with Cheryl Wakslak and myself), which won a Best Paper Award at this year’s Academy of Management annual meeting!

Does your research explore themes of luck, serendipity, or chance? We invite you to join our Academy of Management PDW on 'Luck, Chance, and Serendipity' at the 2025 Annual Meeting – and receive constructive feedback on your work!

📩 Submit here: bit.ly/aom2025pdw

We’re excited to keep the conversation going—please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions or ideas.

Full call for papers: bit.ly/smjserendipity

If you're curious about our upcoming 𝙎𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙜𝙞𝙘 𝙈𝙖𝙣𝙖𝙜𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙅𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙣𝙖𝙡 (𝙎𝙈𝙅) special issue on chance, luck, and serendipity, here’s the recording of our recent info session: bit.ly/smjspecialis...

Registration for Virtual Information Session: SMJ Special Issue on 'Chance, Luck, and Serendipity in Management and Strategy' The Call for Papers can be found here: bit.ly/smjserendipity

Are you interested in exploring the role of chance, luck, and serendipity in strategy and management? Join us for the 𝑺𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒈𝒊𝒄 𝑴𝒂𝒏𝒂𝒈𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝑱𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒏𝒂𝒍 special issue virtual information session next week! bit.ly/SMJchanceluc...

📝 Call for papers: bit.ly/SMJCallforPa...

YouTube video by SEJ Media Kenyan Entrepreneurship Navigating Ethnicity and Social Ties in Sub Saharan Africa

We explore how entrepreneurs in ethnically fractionalized environments navigate social networks to access opportunities. We unpack creative tactics to transcend and assert ethnic homophily.

🔗 Listen now: www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0Yf...
📄 Paper: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

YouTube video by SEJ Media Kenyan Entrepreneurship Navigating Ethnicity and Social Ties in Sub Saharan Africa

We’re kicking off 2025 with SEJ Soundbite, the official podcast of Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal! 🎧

Our first episode:

📌 "How entrepreneurs develop social ties to access resources and opportunities in socially contested environments"

📖 By Christian Busch & ROBERT MUDIDA

YouTube video by SEJ Media Kenyan Entrepreneurship Navigating Ethnicity and Social Ties in Sub Saharan Africa

1/x Great new format by the Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal (SEJ), featuring our (with ROBERT MUDIDA) paper on how entrepreneurs in Kenya navigate ethnically diverse networks:

Introducing SEJ Soundbite 🎙️

Christian Busch on LinkedIn: "If you always play to what’s expected, you don’t encourage serendipity."… "If you always play to what’s expected, you don’t encourage serendipity." At our last Academy of Management serendipity panel, Henry Mintzberg shared key…

(3/x) 🔹 Great ideas come from anomalies. Mintzberg’s best insights came from spotting the unexpected and asking why, why, why?

A great reminder: in academia and business, serendipity isn’t just blind luck—it favors the prepared mind.

Watch Henry's talk here: www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

(2/x) 🔹 The elevator moment matters. Over-scheduling might cost you a job offer or a co-authorship—simply because there was no room for an unexpected conversation.

🔹 Too much serendipity can be overwhelming, too little is limiting.

(1/x) "If you always play to what’s expected, you don’t encourage serendipity."

At our @aomconnect.bsky.social panel, @mintzberg.bsky.social shared insights on serendipity:

🔹 We often over-organize for the expected. A packed schedule can block chance encounters that spark career-defining moments.

(5/5): 🔹 Violina Rindova emphasized how embracing uncertainty can unlock hidden opportunities: when we act in uncertain situations, a serendipity perspective can help spot hidden opportunities within problems, use surprises to spark new ideas, and blend new insights with existing knowledge.