Serendipity Soup

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Matt Georges

Season 1, Ep. 19

This month it’s a very special episode of Serendipity Soup because, although I haven’t completely decided yet, I think this is probably going to be the last one. It’s possible I will take a break and come back with a second series, but right now that’s not the plan, so how to round off the Serendipity Soup story neatly?

 

Well, when I floated the idea of ending the podcast in the previous episode, several listeners suggested the idea of me giving my story as the final episode so I asked my editor Anna if she would interview me and she agreed.

 

You may disagree once you listen but I’d say there’s two themes to this one. The first is the idea of having respect for the stories that people tell me and how difficult it is to make sure that I do justice to something so personal. It’s shown me what a skill really good quality journalism is.

 

Second, I think the podcast itself rather neatly sums up the very idea I’ve been wrestling with: what is success? I recently read that Dick Fuld the disgraced head of Lehman Brothers – the bank whose collapse nearly took down the entire global financial system in 2008 – once publicly shredded the tie of the second best trader in the bank, saying essentially that “second place is first loser”. 

 

This is the key message of the celebrity success industry, so in podcast audience terms I should probably have my entire suit, socks, pants and probably my house shredded. After all, if a podcast can only be deemed a success when it has the highest listener numbers then everyone other than Joe Rogan might as well just pack up and go home. Obviously they don’t, which shows there’s more to it than that and so I talk a fair bit with Anna about how successful or otherwise I think Serendipity Soup has been.

 

Huge thanks to all of you who’ve listened to the podcast and got in touch to say how much you enjoyed it. I really appreciate your support. Here are the links for this episode:

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8/1/2022

Camilla Waterman

Season 1, Ep. 17
Welcome to Serendipity Soup! The antidote to celebrity success podcasts.A lot of my guests define success in work as finding something that makes you happy. But this month’s guest, Camilla Waterman, added a really useful twist. Success is finding something that makes you happy at the time you’re doing it. The thing I envy about Camilla is her positive attitude to change. Just because a job makes her happy when she starts, doesn’t mean it will always make her happy. She seems so comfortable recognising when that point has been reached and then simply acting to improve the situation by moving on. In that respect she’s a lot like my guest in episode 2, Nicole Shamier, who was very comfortable recognising that at some point she wouldn’t be the right person for the dream job she was in at the time. Only two links this month. The first is to the brilliant BBC documentary ‘The Edge’, which is available on BBC Iplayer here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000lhvt/the-edge. The second is a last minute addition as I re-listened to Camilla's episode, which is the Wikipedia entry for the classical Greek legend of Cassandra: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassandra.
7/1/2022

Jo Bradshaw

Season 1, Ep. 16
Welcome to Serendipity Soup! The antidote to celebrity success podcasts.Who are the champions of your life? The people who are there at just the right time, with just the right support, to supercharge your life and take you to whatever your next level is. This month my guest on Serendipity Soup is Jo Bradshaw: an outdoor instructor, mountain climbing expedition leader, public speaker and leadership coach. I learned a lot from my conversation with Jo, but I was particularly taken by two things she talks about. The first is the importance of every single person to the successful functioning of the teams she leads. The second is this concept of ‘champions of your life’. Jo mentions several of these people as she talks and I hope you’ve been lucky enough to have had some champions of your life too. Here are links to some of the things we talk about:Breaking The Fever S2-04 I Power dynamics in the office - with Laetita Vitaud: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/breaking-the-fever/id1621524371?i=1000565748591Bruce Tuckman’s ‘forming–storming–norming–performing’ model of group development: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuckman%27s_stages_of_group_developmentCarol Dweck and the ‘growth’ mindset: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_DweckAsthma UK: https://www.asthma.org.uk/Anthony Nolan: https://www.anthonynolan.org/Place2Be – Improving children’s mental health: https://www.place2be.org.uk/The Duke of Edinburgh’s awards: https://www.dofe.org/360 Expeditions: https://www.360-expeditions.com/Discover Adventure: https://www.discoveradventure.com/
6/1/2022

Zaid Ansari

Season 1, Ep. 15
Welcome to Serendipity Soup! The antidote to celebrity success podcasts.Is it too risky to be playful at work? This month I’m talking to Zaid Ansari. I had the pleasure of interviewing Zaid face to face at my house and early on in the recording he says that he’s at the point in his career where he only wants to do stuff that’s fun. But actually that sense of fun and playfulness feels built in to his life so far.  Zaid started off his career as an accountant at an advertising agency in London in the 1990s where he worked hard and played harder. So, a bit of a change of pace then to leave that and work for Crufts, the world-famous dog show.  Zaid then left to work in Pakistan as a go-between for the Asian Development Bank and the Pakistani government before returning to the UK and taking on numerous other roles, including starting his own construction company before winding up in his current position as a lecturer in subjects as varied as accounting, employability skills and becoming a nutritional professional.So, the usual mix of apparently unrelated eclectic career choices for a Serendipity Soup guest, but as always there’s a golden thread. In Zaid’s case I would suggest it’s his playfulness and his love of interacting with people. When Zaid left after our recording, I watched him walk down the street and felt like my life was much fuller, richer and more joyful for having met him. And that wasn’t just because he’d brought a bottle of wine for me and my wife and some chocolates for our kids. I hope you’ll feel the same way once you’ve heard him tell his story.Only a couple of links for this episode. Here they are:‘Achieve Your Potential with Positive Psychology’ by Tim Lebon - https://www.waterstones.com/book/9781444190922Crufts - https://www.crufts.org.uk/
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