Serendipity
Serendipity
One of the definitions of serendipity is destiny or karma. Here is an example of serendipity.
I was scrolling Facebook sometime around 2011 and saw that Andrew Semple had posted that he had just given his 100th referral. Because I believe in passing referrals and have the philosophy of ‘Givers Gainâ€, I thought that he would be someone I wanted to be friends with. So I liked him on Face Book.
I was attending BNI’s national conference in St Louis and met someone from St Louis that mentioned Andrew by name and said to me that he is great at passing referrals; I really wanted to meet this guy.
A few years later I had met one of Andrew’s competitors that wanted to join a BNI, but wanted a testimony from a lender first. Andrew is a mortgage lender with Prime Lending, so I thought of him.
When I called him, even though we had never met, he asked me “what privilege do I have to be talking with the great Robert Mitchell of BNI?†I was flattered to say the least. He said he knew me very well because of my involvement with BNI.
After asking him for a favor he responded like this. “So you want me to call one of my competitors and tell him how great BNI is and how it can help his business?†I said “yes.†He said “I would love to do itâ€, and he did.
After that we went to an event together and met face to face. A few weeks later he posted on Face Book a tip about removing your outside hose from the faucet which prevents your pipes from freezing. Because my company, Kwik Dry Restoration and Remodeling specializes in insurance claims and water and fire restoration I shared his post on my Kwik Dry page. About a week later Andrew had a separate water incident, sent me a message on Facebook, and had asked if that was the type of work I was in, I told him it was and he refereed himself to me.
Even though we had met and he had known about me, he was unsure of my business until I shared his post. But this story doesn’t stop here; the true part of serendipity is in what happened next. Remember serendipity can mean luck or destiny or even karma. I find it interesting that the philosophy of BNI is ‘Givers Gain.†Before I share the rest of this story let me share a little about BNI.
BNI has over 170,000 members worldwide; BNI is the largest business networking organization in the world. In 2014 alone, BNI generated 6.6 million referrals resulting in $8.6 billion dollars’ worth of business for its members. We offer members the opportunity to share ideas, contacts and most importantly, business referrals.
BNI’S philosophy is: The philosophy of this organization is built upon the idea of “Givers Gain®”: By giving business to others, you will get business in return. This is predicated on the age-old idea of “What goes around comes around.” I am a director consultant of BNI and I am also a member of a local chapter. So I find the rest of my story very enlightening.
Our Mission The mission of BNI is to help members increase their business through a structured, positive, and professional referral marketing program that enables them to develop long-term, meaningful relationships with quality business professionals.
So to recap so far, Andrew posted on Facebook he passed his 100th referral for the year, 100 referrals was his goal for the whole year and the year was not over. Soon after the post I met someone from St Louis at the BNI conference that brought up Andrew’s name “by chanceâ€, another definition of serendipity. Then I called Andrew to help out his competition, we went to a networking event together, he posted the water damage tip, I shared it and then he had a water damage problem in his home and I helped him with it. Are you with me so far?
Andrew then invited me to an organization named Naifa, which stands for National association for insurance agents and financial advisors. At Naifa Andrew introduces me to Todd. Todd’s neighbor has a water damage problem and Todd refers his neighbor to me. Working on his neighbor’s house, this project requires an electrician. I refer my new customer that Todd referred to me and Todd was referred to me by Andrew, and I met Andrew because he posted his 100th referral for the year! Wow, when I passed my referral to Todd’s neighbor that was my 100th referral I passed in 2015!
Robert Allen Mitchell Sr.
Owner of Kwik Dry Restoration and Remodeling
Director consultant of BNI