Introducing Dennis's Serendipity Digest: Join My Journey!

Hey,

writing to you from the ICE speeding at 218 km/h from Zurich to Frankfurt. This is an experiment. Reply and let me know what you think.

This is a weekly email in which I share one photo, two ideas and three links that caught my interest. Stuff I share covers personal growth, AI, technology, entrepreneurship and other stuff that gets me excited.

Enjoy.

Oh and feel free to respond in case something resonates or you feel like it.

📸 Photo of the Week

Two ideas

1. CRM AI readiness audit as a service. Everyone wants to benefit from AI, but often basic knowledge is missing. The result of the audit is a readiness assessment and recommendations that allow you to benefit from AI.

2. Roger Federer’s commencement speech inspired me, specifically this part:
   “In tennis, perfection is impossible... In the 1,526 singles matches I played in my career, I won almost 80% of those matches... Now, I have a question for all of you... what percentage of the POINTS do you think I won in those matches?

   Only 54%.

   In other words, even top-ranked tennis players win barely more than half of the points they play.

   When you lose every second point, on average, you learn not to dwell on every shot.

   You teach yourself to think: OK, I double-faulted. It’s only a point.

   OK, I came to the net and I got passed again. It’s only a point.

   Even a great shot, an overhead backhand smash that ends up on ESPN’s Top Ten Plays: that, too, is just a point.

   Here’s why I am telling you this.
   When you’re playing a point, it’s the most important thing in the world.
   But when it’s behind you, it’s behind you… This mindset is really crucial, because it frees you to fully commit to the next point… and the next one after that… with intensity, clarity and focus.
   The truth is, whatever game you play in life… sometimes you’re going to lose. A point, a match, a season, a job… it’s a roller coaster, with many ups and downs.
   And it’s natural, when you’re down, to doubt yourself. To feel sorry for yourself.
   And by the way, your opponents have self-doubt, too. Don’t ever forget that.
   But negative energy is wasted energy.
   You want to become a master at overcoming hard moments. That to me is the sign of a champion.
   The best in the world are not the best because they win every point... It’s because they know the’ll lose… again and again… and have learned how to deal with it.
   You accept it. Cry it out if you need to… then force a smile.
   You move on. Be relentless. Adapt and grow.
   Work harder. Work smarter. Remember: Work smarter.” - Roger Federer in his Dartmouth Commencement Address 2024 (entire speech here)

Three cool links

1. “It’s not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it.” - Lucius Annaeus Seneca → What value do I want to set on my time? One of the questions that came up as I was reading the Seneca letter on Tim Ferris’ blog

2. Salesforce.com on November 28, 1999 “Exploit the Power of the Internet to Harness Your Sales Information!“ the birth of SAAS

3. “Strategy Letter I: Ben and Jerry’s vs. Amazon” by Joel Spolsky. Reminded me of a statement from a colleague at Rocket Internet back in 2014 “No one taps you on the shoulder for saving money at Rocket”. Valuent is definitely a Ben and Jerry’s type of company

Personal note

I decided to start this newsletter during the train ride from Zurich to Frankfurt. I’ve been thinking about doing this for a while and jotted down the first issue’s content in my morning pages three days ago.

Inspired by Shaan Puri's simple structure of sharing a photo, two ideas, and three cool links, I’m committing to doing this for the next four weeks. I’ll be sending it out every Sunday. Let’s see how it goes!

Thanks for joining me on this ride. I hope you find these insights and discoveries as interesting as I do.

Catch you next Sunday!

Best,
Dennis