Serendipity, or the hand of fate

Making sure you're in the right place at the right time is often the key to success in business, or in life. Sometimes, you don't need to make any effort for this to happen. It's as if the cosmos conspires to put you where you need to be without your conscious involvement. This happened to me today.

I've been working in Croydon for most of this year, travelling down there on the train usually once a week, often more. In all that time I've never driven myself to Piccadilly station from home: I've always taken a cab. Today, following a conversation with a colleague who takes pride in submitting the minimum expenses claims possible, my conscience was pricked and I decided to drive in and save a bit of the firm's money.

Arriving at the station after the morning rush, I discovered the surface car park opposite the station was full. I checked out the short-stay car park at the station but this cost more than price of two taxi rides, so that was a non-starter. I ended up having to park in Charles Street - about a ten minute walk away and still costing the same as a single taxi ride.

On the way home on the train this evening I was thinking about the walk back to the car, and wishing I could jump straight into a warm taxi right outside the main door of the station rather than have to walk to the car park. It wasn't raining - it could easily have been - but it was still bitterly cold, so I decided this would be the last time I worried about saving on expense claims. For the sake of eight quid I would remain comfortably ensconced in warm taxis from now on.

A few minutes later walking down Whitworth Street on my way to the car park, a woman approached me from the other side of the road. She looked really distraught.

"Can you help me?" she pleaded. Before I had time to react, she held up a car key in front of my face and continued, "look, here's my car key, just to prove what I'm saying. My car is parked over there and I've got almost no petrol left. I just need a gallon to get me home, so I'm asking three people for a pound and no-one will listen to me! I didn't want to ask for all the money in one go because three pounds is a lot to ask for isn't it? But can you give me a pound?"

This area of the city is full of vagrants and beggars, but even though she wasn't especially well dressed it was clear she wasn't one of them and the story rang true. I thought ruefully that even if it wasn't true, she deserved full marks for coming up with something so original. I looked in my pocket, intending right away to give her all the money she needed. Whitworth Street was pretty deserted at that time of night and it looked to me like her chances of finding two other people prepared to give her any money were slim to none. I asked her if £3 was really enough to get her home and where home was?

"I'm staying with my Mum in Holmfirth," she replied. An uncanny coincidence, as anyone who's read my website will know, because I used to live two miles away from Holmfirth. Without intending to prove or disprove her story, I engaged the lady in a brief conversation about the area and it was clear she knew it well. I counted out £4 in coin and handed it over with the hope that she find a petrol station somewhere close and have a safe journey home. With obvious relief she thanked me and returned across the road in the direction she'd said her car was in.

Continuing on along Whitworth Street my main thought for the first few steps was a concern that I'd given her a good chunk of my remaining cash and might not now have enough left to release my car from Charles Street car park, but I hadn't gone more than twenty yards when the reality of what had just happened hit me. This was the reason - the only reason - I had "decided" to drive into the city today for the first time this year. So that I could be there, on Whitworth Street, at exactly the right time to meet that woman and help her out. It's as if I was picked up and put there. I felt a shiver of something more than the night's cold run through me, and the frustrations and tensions of the day fell away leaving me with wonderful sense of rightness. I hope she made it home alright.