Simple moments can sometimes change everything

I've found it interesting that we can wander through life and not realize the life-changing moments that can pass us by. At Kellogg we have to bid on classes. I was on the wait-list for a very expensive class, in terms of the number of points that was bid on the class. There was a rumor that the professor was going to expand the class and let everyone in. I turned up to the first class and it the room was packed out. I figured there was not much chance I would get in. I turned around and decided to go to another class for which I was higher on the waitlist. On my way there, I walked past the professor for the expensive class -- he greeted me with a 'hello'. I stopped to think, "Hmm... Maybe I should have stuck around in that class? Maybe I could have got in? Maybe we'd have ended up best friends and he'd give me a million bucks?" After a little thought, I decided not to head back to the overpacked classroom where with the expensive professor. Was this a mistake? Had I just made the wrong life changing decision?

Another simple moment came about last quarter was when a class project team I was working with asked, "are we doing market research or are we doing sales?" The team I was on for the MKTG450 Marketing Research class last quarter graciously agreed to work on my startup as the class project. However, there was still some uncertainty about whether we should throw in a final question to the interviews we were planning to do with the participants. The question was, "would you be interested in doing a (paid) trial". At the time we weren't even sure whether, at that stage, we had a valuable product. In hindsight, the question turned out to be quite important - generating some leads for developing the business. On another day I might not have been enthused and not been as insistent that we include the question. On that day, I did and the team was (fortunately) happy to do so.

It transpires the "expensive professor" did not let anyone on the waitlist into the class. It was not such a life changing moment after all. Perhaps more obviously, he probably wouldn't have given me a million bucks either. If only we could figure out a way to determine which moments are life-changing and which are not.