WWW.beBee

Welcome to Wednesday Word(s) of the Week at beBee: WWW.beBee

For this week we have the following contributions:

1. CityVP 🐝 Manjit writes: my favorite word is Serendipity.

Serendipity means a "fortunate happenstance" or "pleasant surprise". It was coined by Horace Walpole in 1754. In a letter he wrote to a friend, Walpole explained an unexpected discovery he had made by reference to a Persian fairy tale, The Three Princes of Serendip. It was first used in 1754. The princes, he told his correspondent, were "always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of". The notion of serendipity is a common occurrence throughout the history of scientific innovation such as Alexander Fleming's accidental discovery of penicillin in 1928, the invention of the microwave oven by Percy Spencer in 1945, and the invention of the Post-it note by Spencer Silver in 1968.

The reasons I love the word Serendipity is that not only does it sound great tripping off your tongue, you can almost guess the meaning of the word from the way it sounds. I love the concept of happy coincidences and I have seen the ripples of serendipitous meetings and discoveries throughout my life. In fact, I doubt I would be living in SA if I hadn't met a chap called Glen Peck in London in 1996 and I don't think I would be following my dream of being an architectural designer if I hadn't met Gary Pereira in 2002/3.

2. CityVP 🐝 Manjit writes: A word that has meaning to me is, CONTRIBUTION.

Contribution is defined as :

1. A gift or payment to a common fund or collection.

2. The part played by a person or thing in bringing about a result or helping something to advance.

3. An article or other piece of writing submitted for publication in a collection.

4. See What this Words Means to Me

What this word means to me: Is how William Hewlett and David Packard defined the word CONTRIBUTION : HP Way: CONTRIBUTION.

Do our products offer something unique—be it a technical contribution, a level of quality, a problem solved—to our customers? Are the communities in which we operate stronger and the lives of our employees better than they would be without us? Are people's lives improved because of what we do? If the answer to any these questions is "no," then Packard and Hewlett would deem HP a failure, no matter how much money the company returned to its shareholders.

The HP Way - http://www.jimcollins.com/article_topics/articles/the-hp-way.ht

Invitation: I invite you all to contribute your words. Please send me a message with your word, its definition and what it means to you by Monday. Looking forward to next week.