Tania Luna - Surprise: Embrace the Unpredictable and Engineer the Unexpected

Our Story

Hello, dear reader. Weve only just met, but there are a few predictions we can already make about you. Your life is wrapped in uncertainties and complexities (even the things that seem simple rarely ever are). You find these spots of mystery and confusion frustrating. But they also intrigue you. Sometimes they even inspire you. You wish for fewer surprises in your life, and sometimeswhen your calendar is packed with meetings that you cant seem to remember even as theyre happeningyou wish for more surprise. More wonder, more vibrancy, more adventure. We know how you feel because weve been there. Our personal stories of surprise have shaped our lives and led us to write this very book.

I place two fingers on my neck. It feels like a tiny creature is pounding against my carotid artery with its fists. Thud. Thud. Thud. By now, its a familiar sensation, but it still makes me giggle so uncontrollably that I have to hold my breath. Im all grown up. Yet I feel as much delight in this moment as I did curled up in the bottom of some friends closet during a game of hide and seek. The phone booth Im standing in is snug and caked in gum. It smells like beer. But its a good hiding spot. Ill be able to see them through the gap in the metal, but they wont be able to tell Im watching. Besides, its a bustling city street near Grand Central, so I am practically invisible. Someone walks past me. I grab the phone and press it to my ear. Its sticky. I regret it immediately. The pounding in my neck grows more insistent. I have to press my hand over my mouth to keep from bursting into laughter. The stranger keeps walking. False alarm. I exhale and permit a stray giggle to escape. I love my job.

Sometimes its a little awkward explaining what I do for a living. I find it especially challenging at parties of the loud-music and small-talk variety.

So what do you do?

I specialize in surprise.

What did you say?

I surprise people!

You what?

Surprise!!!

At this point, they either develop a sudden urge to go check on something or everything screeches to a halt and, to my deep discomfort, I become the center of attention. A blockade of eager faces piles up around me, expecting to be amused and delighted by my career choice. They say things like, You must have so much fun! And, What was the best surprise you ever did? I dont want to let them down, so I handpick the bits and pieces that make for good storytelling and reality television. But all the while, what I really want to do is turn down the music, invite them to pull up a cushy chair, and tell the story of the biggest surprise of all. It isnt silly or sensational. It doesnt make for good small talk. But it is the reason that I am writing this book: Embracing surprise changed my life.

I check the time and peer through the gap in the phone booth again. Waiting is the hardest part, but I savor the anticipation. Any minute now, the corner Im watching will fill with anxious and excited facesclients who have asked us to take them on a surprise. Youd think Id be the calm one since I know the plan, but even after six years of plotting surprises, calm is not a word that surfaces often in my vocabulary. I have a plan, yes, but things can change in an instant. I have to be ready to meet the swerving, swirling unpredictability of life head-on. I realize that Im looking forward to something unexpected happening, and it makes me grin.

I havent always been this way. If you rewound to my childhood youd see a little girl who hated surprise so much that she forbade her family from getting her unexpected gifts for her birthday. (All presents had to be approved at least one week in advance.) As time went on, her surprise aversion only grew stronger and more sophisticated. By the time she was in high school, her computer brimmed with spreadsheets that outlined her life plans (in one-month, six-month, one-year, five-year, and ten-year increments). She even tracked the emotions she experienced and planned to experience in her relationships. The woman crouching in this sticky, boozy phone booth still feels a thud thud thud in her neck when giving up control, but she accepts it now. Most days, she even relishes it.

At last, they reach the corner. I recognize them just by their facial expressions. Some are giggling and poking each other like kids. Some clutch one anothers arms. Others look borderline angry. Ive come to know all these reactions to surprise as intimately as the excited pounding in my own chest. I grab my cell phone, type cross the street, and push the send button. The text message flies across the street and all their phones buzz at once. As soon as theyve followed my instructions, I type: Good. Now get on the next train that arrives. Youll know when to get off. I know theyve gotten the message because they turn in circles, trying to figure out how I can see them. My phone vibrates.

Just get on?!?!?

Yes.

They dont know it yet, but they arent just getting on the subway. Theyre walking into a living metaphor for our perpetually changing and surprising world. And its not just a fun way to spend a Tuesday afternoon. Its training in the skills that separate people and organizations that thrive in this new world from the ones that cant stomach its volatility. Skills that most of us never developed because we were raised to believe in a world thats predictable and under our control. These skills distinguish the most successful businesses from the forgettable ones, fulfilling relationships from stale ones, and individuals who are passionate explorers from those who feel stuck and lost. They are the skills that turn our work and our lives into meaningful adventures. And they are the skills that have transformed me from an anxious, emotionally numb control freak into a jumble of joy inside a phone booth.