How a chance meeting with a big-time CEO helped my small company

Photo credit: Pixabay.

I often say that success is half luck and half what you make of it. But the thing is, you can make your own luck.

Not too long ago, when I was the CEO of a young gaming company, an opportunity was literally standing in front of me. If I hadn’t been paying attention, I would have missed it.

I was in line at the Macau airport (economy class, of course), heading home from the Global Gaming Expo, when I happened to look at the business class line. That’s when I saw him: the CEO of one of the biggest players in our space.

I prefer not to identify him by name, but let’s just say he was a big fish. Seeing him there was like a software startup CEO spotting Larry Page, just standing there with his wife.

He had no idea who I was but, of course, I knew exactly who he was. Me? I was running a small company, competing against giants, while his company’s R&D spending in a single year was 20 to 30 times the size of our entire budget. We’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars.

Our company wasn’t even a blip on his radar, but I decided to change that.

Our company wasn’t even a blip on his radar, but I decided to change that.

I didn’t even know what I wanted from him. I just knew in my gut that making contact would help me down the line.

I gave myself a quick pep talk, and then I did it. I jumped into the business class line, waited a couple of minutes so it would seem natural, and then went for it.

It may sound a little cliche, but it’s true. Luck really is what you make of it. I’m not saying you’ll always get what you want. You can be the hardest worker in the world, have the most brilliant idea, and still fail. Maybe the market timing is wrong. Maybe the market crashes. Maybe the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression ripples through as you’re seeking funding (that happened to me, so I know). And frankly, you can have only an OK idea that hits the market at the right time and place and become very successful. Luck has a lot to do with success.

But you can hedge your bets, and that’s what I did.

Once I was in line, I turned to him and casually mentioned that, coincidentally, we had been at the same conference and now we were in the same line. It broke the ice. I introduced myself, then we traded cards. I kept it brief. He was cordial, but I was embarrassed (hopefully, it didn’t show).

I had what I needed and we both went our separate ways.