escaped canada just to be surrounded by canadians in sf
just in the first 3 hours of landing:
Spotted a Canadian flag in someone’s backpack in the airport washroom. struck up a conversation and it turned out he was a biotech founder from Toronto
went straight to an SPC event from the airport where i met even more canadians. Some dropouts, some recent grads like me, and of course the Waterloo kids interning out here
somehow also reunited with my Hack the North teammate from 2022, who is now the founder of LeLamp
after that, Tom (YC backed founder from Toronto) and I went to a random Chipotle close to the Clado office
the place was basically empty. just us and two guys who looked about our age
overheard one of them say “VC” so i decided to approach them and ask “are you guys fundraising?”
we ended up sitting together. turned out they were from uOttawa and one of em (Ubai) just landed to raise their first round
these instances continued to happen over the next few days in Treehacks, Powell St., trains. etc…
after reflecting on my time in sf, i realized that a lot of people make the mistake of thinking that sf just grants you luck. it doesn’t.
this was my third time in the city. on my first two trips, none of this happened. i stayed in the same neighborhoods and went to the same types of events, but i left with zero serendipitous stories.
sf just gives you more chances and reasons to be curious. but the luck only happens if you actually take action on your curiosity.
that’s when it becomes a superpower
a year ago, i would’ve just sat down and minded my business in that chipotle. i’d tell myself they looked busy, or it’d be weird, or nothing would come of it anyway.
but years of rejection therapy taught me that serendipity only finds the people who are “chalant” enough to go after it.
not the ones who stay quiet and follow societal expectations.
if you want to start living with more intention and social courage, come join us at the chalant society. we’re a community of people who choose not to let fear hold us back from living the life we wanna live and attract the people & opportunities we wanna be surrounded by.
i started it because i realized how hard it is to be courageous when everyone around you isn’t. so, we group up and be chalant together :)
scratch
Being curious is easy. Anyone can be curious. What people lack these days is the courage to take action on these curiosities.
Not everyone is able to move to cities like SF and that’s fine. Serendipity lives everywhere and anywhere.
all you gotta do is… actually do it.