How MLK, Living in a VW Bus, Selling Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, Led to Meeting Iconic Leaders, a Deal with Disney and an Extraordinary Journey!

In the dictionary serendipity means having an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident. I’ve always wondered- how does one do that? How does one gain an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident? I believe that serendipitous happenings occur when we are out of our comfort zone. Because when we reach beyond what is comfortable, we are paying attention. We are living on the edge, listening, watching, looking for anything that might be the next clue, the next chance encounter. We pay attention to heed the next opportunity that leads us to the next opportunity, that opens a door and voila, serendipity! 

I never met Martin Luther King Jr, But I did get the privilege and honor of Meeting Coretta Scott King, his wife. This is a picture of me speaking at The Martin Luther King Commission on Service, welcoming our countries latest 500 Americorps Volunteers to their new posts of service. I was asked to share leadership lessons I had learned from having been a leader and my years of of volunteer service. 

How did I get this gig? As a Rotaract member at my university I could attend Rotary meetings anywhere in the country and get a free lunch. Knowing this, I planned to attend a Rotary meeting in downtown Atlanta, Georgia. It was at the Ansley Country Club. I parked my Volkswagen Bus next to the 18th fairway, let my Golden Retriever Jack out of the bus and thought I’d give him a little exercise before heading into the lunch meeting. Nobody was playing golf on that hole, so I grabbed my frisbee and started throwing the disc across the well groomed grass and watching Jack run as fast as he could, leap in the air, all four paws off the ground, and catch that frisbee in his mouth. He would then run back with so much joy, drop the frisbee at my feet and let me know with his uncontrollable enthusiasm, “Throw it again!” So I did few more times, looked at my watch and realized it was time for lunch, so I poured a bowl of water, put my dog back in the bus, and headed into the meeting. 

I had never been there before and knew no one going into the meeting. At this point, I was living in my VW bus with my dog, selling grilled cheese sandwiches off my Coleman stove to fund my journey, while planning on calling up the most successful people in the world and asking them out for coffee. 

The reason: To learn from their experiences. I wanted to study the common traits, motivating factors and guiding principles which enabled everyday people to live extraordinary lives. At this point, I hadn’t actually met anyone yet. This was merely a vision. This was my dream! I wanted to bridge a communication gap between young people and people of proven depth and character. So I came up with this crazy idea that I could take the most successful people in the world out for coffee and learn from their experiences. When I started, I had no idea if my crazy idea was going to work or not, but the only way to find out was to have the courage to speak it into existence. 

Most people I find are afraid to speak their possibility into the world for fear of being judged, ostracized, or made a fool for thinking such big thoughts. But somehow what other people thought of me was one of my least concerns. I just had a strong intuitive hit that this was my path and I was following it with all my might. 

So I walked into the door of the Ansley Country club not knowing a soul. As I walked inside, a man greeted me at the foray stopping me and said, “Where you the guy out there throwing the frisbee to your dog?” Thinking I might be in trouble, I sheepishly said, “Yes”. He said, “I thought that was you.” Then he invited me to join him at his table for lunch. I did and we struck up a conversation that would forever change the trajectory of my life. 

It turned out that this guy was the director for the Martin Luther King Commission on Service and he was responsible for coordinating the speakers for the event. He had asked me about my experience in college and I let him know I had been a student body president, a fraternity president and I was a VISTA (Volunteers In Service To America), which was very similar to the Americorps. After hearing my story, he thought I’d be a great opening speaker for the event. 

So I said yes. It was a huge honor to address the incoming volunteers. After my talk, I got to meet the late Mrs. King and speak with her for awhile. She was dignified, powerful and her commitment to service was undeniable. It was indeed a great honor to meet her and we planned to have a follow up interview in the weeks to come. I also got meet Congressman John Lewis who is in this picture sitting to my right and schedule an interview with him too. 

Also in the audience that afternoon was a member of the board of directors for the King Commission, who also happened to be the director of the FBI too, William Sessions. Meeting Mr. Sessions, I told him of my plans to interview successful people and asked him if he and I could do an interview? He said he was leaving back to Texas that afternoon, where he lived, but if I ever made it out to San Antonio to give him a call. 

A year or so later, I had built a team of two others and the three of us made our way to Texas and there we had the good fortune to interview Mr. Sessions. At the end of our interview, I asked the director of the FBI if he had any friends that we could interview? He said yes and introduced us to the Governor of Texas - Ann Richards. At the end of our interview, we asked her if she had any friends and she introduced us to “The Fonz”. Henry Winkler. After talking to Mr. Winkler, he was kind enough to introduce us to the head of Disney Specials who turned our travels into an award winning feature film called "The Journey", which put our team on the Today Show and launched me into an international speaking career. 

One of the biggest take-aways from this experience is how powerful it is to speak your possibility into the world. Sharing my vision of what I was going to do, many doubted me. Many thought I was full of it. Many cynics and naysayers questioned my ability and my intentions. Yet in the face of non-agreement, in the face of judgement, in the face of uncertainty, I kept speaking my possibility into the world, until the world helped it come true. 

So If you keep speaking your possibility into the world, if you have the courage to pursue your dream, even when others doubt it, if you can follow your next clue, walk through the next door and the next door after that, if you put yourself out there, and keep risking, even if it means appearing a fool for awhile, pursuing a dream nobody and stay the course following your highest intention, if you act of what you believe is possible in your heart to be a worthy endeavor and not quit until it comes to fruition, then you too will make many desirable discoveries by accident because serendipity happens when we live beyond our comfort zone.