Serendipity? 2 Interesting Sequences of Events

Here are a couple interesting things that have happened in the last couple days.  #1: I am in New York this week visiting our office here, run by the great Will Leggett.  2 days ago we got a ride to the train station from Will’s girlfriend’s dad, Al. I got out of the car and was walking away when I heard the car honk. Al was waiving me back to the car.  In his hand was $5 I had mistakenly left on the floor.  His comment was, “I don’t charge for the ride.” I smiled, pocketed my $5 and walked away thinking about a movie where Danny Devito is a sales man that drops a $5 on the floor as a test, then pretends to return it (when it was never lost in the first place) effort to build “trust”.  Anyway, last night I was coming out of the grocery store and there it was on the floor – another $5 bill, accompanied with a receipt.   I looked up and saw a man walking away across the parking lot. There was an immediate realization that I could simply pocket the $5, and that the “karmic right” thing to do is to give it to the person who dropped it.  I grabbed the $5, and the attention of the man, “Excuse me, Sir. You dropped your receipt.” He turned, and with a bothered sigh (I could read his mind: you want me to pick up my trash?) and began to walk back toward me.  As he got closer, “And this $5 too.”  “Ohhh, okay.  Wow. Thanks.”  I responded, “Pass it on.”     As I walked back to the car, I had a flash of the $5 that had been given to me at the train station, and my immediate implulse to give this $5 to the parking lot guy. Karma points are worth much more than $5!

#2: One of the programs that I will be delivering this Spring is for a company called DatanetSolutions, an IT company out of San Diego, CA. I was communicating with Mandy Parent, the President, who told me to call Marla at the office to check on program dates. I quickly googled Data Net Solutions CA, and retrieved the number from the web-site Data Net Solutions.  I called and spoke with the receptionist, Shiela, who said that Marla was coming into the office soon. We began talking about the program and dates. “We’re taking your team rock climbing in Joshua Tree!  We’re going to explore the concepts of a high performing team, how to move beyond perceived limitations and take calculated risks, and how to build and maintain trust in the face of fear.”  “I want to go! That sounds awesome…”  Later that afternoon we spoke again.  Apparentlytheir training retreat was scheduled in November and Marla didn’t know anything about Joshua Tree.   After exploring a bit more, Shiela asked me, “Are you sure this is the right company?” I responded, “Well, Datanet out of San Diego, right? Mandy Parent is your President, right?”  “Ohhh my! Our company is in Anaheim, and our President is not Mandy.”  Ummm….  the short of it is that I called this company that has the exact SAME NAME as my client. Moreover, the person that coordinates their training programs has the SAME NAME too.  Funny, and Weird.   Of course, Shiela and I will be following up about the “other” Datanet program in November. Ha!

- Tim Walther

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