"I think so," Jesse replied. "Let me check my inbox again."
I was sitting on the couch with Jesse in Sydney, several months later.
"I sent it a while ago," I said as I lazily flicked through the copy of The Art of War that lay on Jesse's coffee table. "Just search for my name. It should come up."
Jesse typed my name into his phone, then burst out laughing. "What the-"
"What's so funny?" I asked.
"Look at this!" He turned his phone around to reveal a short and simple email from his mother, sent several years before we met.
Jesse. You should find yourself a girlfriend like her...
He scrolled down. My failure story was attached to the email, with my name highlighted from the search query. His mom had shared it from an Australian news site.
After we'd finished laughing, I said, "You know, I first met Sam from that article. Did I tell you that?"
"No. How did that happen?"
"Well, he sent me an email after I published my failure story, along with well over a thousand other people. I remember going through and replying to each one, and it took me ages to do. The messages were so sweet. Some of them were short, just thanking me for articulating their struggle. Some of them were from students, thanking me for inspiring them and helping them think differently about taking risks in their life. I could tell when the article hit different international publications because I'd get a whole stream of emails in Mandarin, or German, or an African language I didn't understand. People had actually gone to the effort of translating the whole thing for their local audience.
Anyway, I just vividly remember Sam's email. It said something like, 'I read your article as I was looking out the window of my nice cushy office. The next day, I walked in and quit my job and finally took the plunge full-time on the business I'd always wanted to start.' That business didn't end up working out, but he and I crossed paths in the startup community a few times. Then we ended up at the same co-working space, became friends, and the rest is history. Pretty cool, huh?"
"Yeah, wow," Jessie said. "I still can't get over that email from my mom, though."
"Yeah. What a crazy coincidence!"
