Your story reminded me of something that happened to me the summer before my freshman year in college. I was working two jobs at the time, 40 hours doing an eng

Your story reminded me of something that happened to me the summer before my freshman year in college. I was working two jobs at the time, 40 hours doing an engineering internship at a large company, and another 20+ hours working as a stockboy at a local department store (both in Massachusetts) - my family wasn't poor, but we also weren't rich, so I was trying to bank as much money as I could for the coming school year to take some of the load off my parents. One Saturday, while working at the department store, some blowhard came in to purchase a bunch of housewares to send to his son in Hawaii. The guy was bossy, and basically micromanaged us as we packed his purchases into boxes for shipping, much to our consternation. While waiting for someone to fetch some dishes, Mr. Blowhard and I just started talking to pass the time, and he basically started asking about my life. I told him about going to college and when he learned I was going to MIT, his ear's perked up. Long story short, Mr. Blowhard turned out to be the owner of one of the most successful restaurants in the area, and right then and there he offered to create a scholarship fund and award be a couple of thousand dollars to help pay for my tuition. When I tell folks about this story, they congratulate me for my hustle, but there was actually no hustle involved. I was literally in the right place at the right time, if I had traded shifts with a coworker (as we were wont to do for weekend hours) or if the right plates were on the store shelf, there would have been no money. Between this, the story of how I got my first job out of college (also a story of being at the right place at the right time), and one other story that I won't share, I've come to believe that serendipity is indeed at least as important as what you know or what you do. That said, hustle can only help, so you may as well try. :)