John Hagel III Quotes

Talk to people no one else is talking to. Who would have thought that giving a speech at a funeral at age 12 would introduce me to a man who would introduce me to my first business contact who would introduce me to several other important people in my life. That's luck. That's randomness.

There are chance meetings with strangers that interest us from the first moment, before a word is spoken.

A fool must now and then be right, by chance.

I like chance meetings - life is full of them. Every day, without realising it, I pass people whom I should know.

Some of the greatest things, as I understand, they have come about by serendipity, the greatest discoveries.

Nothing I ever did I expected to do. It just kind of happened.

There are no mistakes, only happy accidents.

I find that my entire life has come to me, and things happened without me planning them. You know, I never asked to photograph Princess Diana, and that made me more famous than I wanted. I never asked to photograph Madonna, and that pushed me to another level. There are things that just take you into the limelight.

The reality is that SXSW is packed with brilliant entrepreneurs, investors and partners. They're everywhere, zipping back and forth like thousands of atoms. Your chances of colliding with one actually improve just by standing still.

Good things happen when you meet strangers.

Happy accidents are real gifts, and they can open the door to a future that didn't even exist. It's kind of nice sometimes to set up something to encourage or allow happy accidents to happen.

Statisticians tell us that people underestimate the sheer number of coincidences that are bound to happen in a world governed by chance.

No amount of thought can ever reveal what comes unexpectedly.

You always end up getting involved in things because of, you know, the strange things your life brings you into contact with.

The upside to smoking is that you get to be social. I was looking for a light when I bumped into Ben Harper's manager. A couple of days later, Ben and I were in the studio.

Coincidence is the word we use when we can't see the levers and pulleys.

I like the serendipitous surprises of reality.

Certain things you have to stumble on to. They can't be preprogrammed.

The greatest events occur without intention playing any part in them; chance makes good mistakes and undoes the most carefully planned undertaking. The world's greatest events are not produced, they happen.

The beauty about my career is that none of it was really calculated.

I have never had a plan. Things happen to me, and, of course, I make friends who later say, 'Hey, you know who would be good for this? McKean would be good for this.' And they hire me, and if they like me, they hire me again, or the word gets out.

The best things in life sometimes happen spontaneously.

Events can neither be regarded as a series of adventures nor strung on the thread of a preconceived moral. They must obey their own laws.

I guess if you live long enough, anything can happen.

I'm crazy about surprises. I love chance.