Connect the Dots is a book I’m so excited about that I’ve underlined passages from practically the whole book–which even for me is pretty radical. Dr. Christian Busch has written a deeply personal and well-researched book on the subject of why serendipity happens, how to cultivate these random yet meaningful coincidences and what to do about them. I can’t think of a more important book on the subject since The Master Key System by Charles F. Haanel came out in 1917. If you think that’s an exaggeration, just wait and see the influence of Christian’s seminal ideas and research on ethics, mission, and the health and well being of the business world, for years to come.
There’s an expression in Hebrew, Tikkun Olam, which means to “Repair the World.” There’s a beautiful concept that comes from Torah that we are here on this earth in order to repair our tiny bit of it. This goes for all people, all walks of life, and Christian’s contribution to our understanding of how to go about “repairing” is so remarkable in its simplicity: just notice when the unexpected happens, when we collide with people and ideas that appear as if gifts from heaven. He says notice your role in making that serendipitous moment happen.
Connect the Dots is helping me remember the stories I’ve experienced over the years of serendipity through the Genesis Cards. Christian Busch has inspired me with what was in plain view but I hadn’t noticed until now. That serendipity works to release our stuck way of thinking, to move us out of our comfort zone to take risks. It leads to unimaginable creative breakthroughs led by the heart and not the brain.
The author may have had a corporate audience in mind for Connect the Dots, but as the creator of the deck of Genesis Cards that unwittingly trigger serendipity in the hands of artists, Christian Busch’s research offers astute insights into the circumstances around which serendipity happens.
I’ve been vested in this same subject for 25 years, trying to understand why art made with a free mind actually illustrated things that would happen later. Or why two artists who didn’t know each other and lived on opposite sides of the Zoom world, could create mirror-opposite drawings. Or why a scene at the beach that looked odd and surreal and I didn’t understand what it meant, elicited a Happy Birthday from a dear friend in New Mexico I’ve known for forty years, who saw what looked like pillars in the sand to me, as birthday candles. She reached out to wish me happy birthday and was spot on about that too. I have more to say about Connect the Dots in my Amazon/Goodreads review and its impact.
