I don’t put much stock in concepts like fate, destiny, and luck. Never have. I do, however, find extreme coincidences super interesting. These random bits of weirdity happen constantly, and at times, can admittedly seem quite uncanny.

Case in point, I worked for the first few years building Shop, in part, on my own (in terms of boots on the ground day-in-day-out). I knew a couple months into the process that I was going to need a place to work so I could put forward a more professional feel to the studio we were building. Nothing is more difficult than having to rely on Starbucks or the little coffee place down the street to hold important meetings. I digress.

The first office we took on was really a great place. We sublet a fifth floor space from a tech company that overlooked the city. It was a great first office that allowed us to hang out that shingle and start putting some important processes in place while creating the vision of our future. Unfortunately, that only lasted about a year before we had to move to a different space (the tech company was moving out).

The second office we had was definitely a step down and pretty bleak. It was in the same building, but squished into what they called a “mezzanine”, which was just a fancy way of saying broom closet with a skylight. It was loud and noisy with low ceilings and crappy carpet. We actually had a door inside the space that led to all the heating and cooling for that floor. More than once I would come in and there out in the open would be the crack of the bent over heat and air-conditioning guy trying to get the heat back on. Yuck.

It did not occur to me until about six months ago that I was in the middle of an interesting coincidence without realizing it.

It took another year of looking, but we finally found a great place downtown with brick walls, high ceilings, and a decent monthly rate. The building is over 100 years old and, at times, feels its age. But, it also has beautiful views, hard wood floors, and tons of personality (although, it has been referred to as a “brothel” by one of our clients too). We are now in the second space in two years, a corner office and even better views. What’s this trip down memory lane? Where’s the bit about extreme coincidence?

It did not occur to me until about six months ago that I was in the middle of an interesting coincidence without realizing it. The number of our home address starts with 11104. Our first two offices were in a building that’s address started with 1104, and our current building is located in a building that starts with 104. None of that was planned, and while it might seems eerie, spooky, or uncanny, I mainly view it as one of those happy coincidentals that we find so many times in life.

How does this all tie into anything? As entrepreneurs and freelancers there are times when the things in our professional lives just come together. Multiple moving elements come gloriously crashing into place at just the right (or wrong) time. It’s those beautiful moments when everything seems to be going right (and sometimes wrong). Embracing those little oddities can be difficult, especially when they don’t seem to be going your way, but being open to these successes and failures is one of the best ways to take control of your career. It is in those moments that you realize the freedom of the life you’ve chosen. You’re in charge, regardless of the outcome, and that is really a great feeling.