The Helicopter and Lemonade Story: A Favorite from "What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20"

Yesterday, I put up a post about Tina Seelig's new book What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20. I sang the book's praises and listed some of the crazy chapter titles I loved.  But as I was re-reading the book, I realized that I could give readers a better sense of how fun, useful, and life-affirming the book is by printing a little excerpt. Recall that one of the chapters is called "Turn Lemonade Into Helicopters."  Here is the story behind it, and it is SO TINA.  Here it is:

Being observant, open-minded, friendly, and optimistic invites luck your way. Take this simple story: several years ago I was at a small local grocery store frequented mostly by those who live nearby. A man and his young daughter approached me in the frozen-food aisle and politely asked how to prepare frozen, canned lemonade. The man had an accent I couldn’t identify, and I was pretty sure he must be new to the area. I told him how to prepare the lemonade and asked where he was from. He said Santiago, Chile. I asked his name and what brought him to our town. I had no ulterior motive. I was just curious. He told me his name was Eduardo and that he and his family were in the area for a year so he could learn about entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley. He was in line to run his family’s business and was in search of tools to make it more innovative. I told him about the entrepreneurship program at Stanford’s School of Engineering and said I’d be happy to do what I could to be of help. Over the next few months I introduced Eduardo to various people in the entrepreneurship community, and he expressed his thanks for my assistance.

Fast-forward two years. I was heading for a conference in Santiago and sent Eduardo a message asking if he wanted to get together for coffee. At the last minute, he wasn’t able to make it, but invited me to go to a specific location in downtown Santiago with a few of my colleagues. We showed up at the office building and were led to the roof, where we were picked up by Eduardo’s family’s private helicopter for a simply spectacular ride above the city, up to the surrounding mountains, and over his family’s ski resort. It was incredible! And to think that it resulted from helping him figure out how to make lemonade. Of course, I didn’t help Eduardo because I wanted a helicopter ride. But by putting myself out there, being open to helping someone, and following up years later, I became quite “lucky.” Earlier I discuss the art of turning lemons (problems) into lemonade (opportunities). But luck goes beyond this—it’s about turning lemonade (good things) into helicopters (amazing things!).

Comments

[Richard]

So often it are little, inconsequential at the moment, things that can change the entire direction of a person's life.

Serving cocktails at a Christmas party one year for some extra pocket change resulted in a job that had me living on the French Riviera for three years.

[Hayli @ Transition Concierge]

The biggest take-away from this awesome story for me is the concept of reaping what you sow. Help others and you'll be helped - it's why so many experts say laid-off workers should be volunteering and helping others. When doing it with a genuine heart, they will reap their due reward!

[Chris Yeh]

Great story. I wrote a post on a similar theme....the most interesting opportunities I've encountered do not come out of purposeful "networking" but rather simply being friend, open, and seeking out smart and interesting people.

http://chrisyeh.blogspot.com/2009/03/secret-foolproof-4-step-way-to-get-to.html