Walt Whitman wrote in Song of Myself:

I find letters from God dropt in the street, and every one is
sign'd by God's name,
And I leave them where they are, for I know that
wheresoe'er I go,
Others will punctually come for ever and ever.

I believe what the poet was writing about here was synchronicity.

The "letters from God" represent, I think, seemingly random yet meaningful events that cross our paths every day; they are missives from the universe of which we should take note. They happen to us all the time -- meeting someone on the street who has the answer to a problem you're trying to solve, getting a windfall just before a major expense, having someone give you the very thing you've been looking for.

Skeptics remark on so-called coincidences without looking for a deeper meaning. I choose to scratch a little deeper, confident that the universe is sending me a signal to pay attention, or to affirm that I'm on the right track.

I often think about the long string of synchronicities that have led me through my life and my business. I didn't set out to be an entrepreneur. But an advertising client turned to the agency for a need and before long a business was born. Ten years after that grand opening, we moved our offices to that original client's building. My desk even sat in the same office as that client's did years before. What series of synchronistic events caused that unlikely scenario?

I wouldn't have called Linda Libby for lunch 5 years ago if a challenge with my staff hadn't pushed me over the edge that day. That lunch led to a strong partnership that has changed my company and my life.

So many employees have come to me through synchronicities; so many projects have been brought into our sphere this way as well.

If you have the kind of faith in the universe that Walt Whitman had, you might find yourself more fascinated than annoyed at unavoidable delays or unpleasant confrontations. You might look at them as gifts: why was I supposed to be late? What did that experience teach me? With this kind of inquisitiveness, everything you experience could be a letter from God.

One of my favorite synchronicities has to do with the Forum for Corporate Conscience, the CEO forum on sustainability we planned a few years back.

About 8 months before the event, I took a two-week trip to Tibet, an amazingly spiritual country that had a profound impact on me. Throughout the trip I kept noticing depictions of three Buddhas together -- the Buddhas of Wisdom, of Compassion and of Power.

Toward the end of the trip, I finally asked our guide about them. "They are shown together because all three are necessary to do good works," Pemba said. "If you have wisdom and compassion, but no power, you cannot make things happen. If you have compassion and power, but no wisdom, you will not make the right decisions. All three are needed."

I thought those three Buddhas represented perfectly the concept behind the Forum: CEOs need wisdom, compassion and power to make the right decisions about their companies, their employees, their communities and the environment. When I returned to Charlotte, this concept became the foundation of all the marketing materials we created for the Forum, including the tagline in the box below.

At the time, I was careful not to mention to anyone that the inspiration for the Forum was based on a Buddhist precept -- I wasn't sure how that would fly in our traditional setting. But the concept of the three Buddhas had a significant impact on guiding me through the complex process of planning this important event.

A few days before the Forum finally arrived, I came home late to pack in order to move to the Ballantyne Hotel where the conference was to take place. We had been working late every night for a month getting ready. I was more nervous about this high-profile event than any other I had produced. I considered it the pinnacle of my career.

I was tired, tense and rushed when I arrived home. I quickly checked my mailbox and tossed the contents on my kitchen counter, thinking I'd leave it until after the Forum.

A small padded envelope caught my eye. I recognized the return address as being from Pam, one of my Tibetan co-travelers. I opened the envelope.

Inside was a small medallion of the three Buddhas of Wisdom, Compassion and Power, with a note from Pam: "I saw this on a vendor's cart on the streets in Bhutan. I thought it belonged to you."

I tucked the medallion into my name badge holder and wore it all weekend long, as a reminder that the universe was on my side.