‘What’s something that happened to you by mistake that ended up being a good thing?’ – 21 completely accidental successes

’16 years ago I came off a late shift in Bradford and instead of going to bed, went online to chill at 3am and started talking to a stranger on the internet about rats and female punk singers from the 1980s.

‘We split up about 10 years ago but I still live in Brighton and have all my lovely friends and my new partner and cats. None of my life would have happened if I’d have just gone to bed like I should have.’
–SpikeVonLipwig

‘On a night out some drunk guy bumped into me and spilled his kebab over me. I ran into the kebab place to get some napkins and a bottle of water to clean myself off, but a guy in front of me had bought the last bottle. Managed to negotiate it from him, got to chatting, and have been married 13 years now.’
–Honest-Possible6596

‘My brother missed a train in Belgium, so he missed the ferry he was supposed to be on. It was the Herald of Free Enterprise.’
–Horror-Kumquat

‘Not a mistake as much as an unforced change of plans. My parents planned out a whole trip to New Orleans.

‘Just before they decided to go ahead and get things booked, my mum changed her mind and thought she’d rather go more north east for our first visit to the states, and then a longer trip in the Deep South with just her and my dad once we (me and sibling) were older and moved out.

‘So they change all the plans, make the new bookings, and hurricane Katrina hits when we’re in Baltimore, instead of New Orleans.’
–JennyW93

‘Back in the 90s I had a CD from NME with a bunch of bands on it. One of the tracks was “I don’t know what to say” by Mogwai, which is more of a soundscape/interlude thing than an actual track. I didn’t think much of it. There was other bands on it that I was more interested in.

‘When I went to Glastonbury though I got confused and, in trying to go to watch one of those other bands (I forget which) I ended up going to watch Mogwai by mistake.

‘It was fucking brilliant, they became one of my favourite bands and I listened to them solidly for the next twenty years, and saw them live multiple times until I got sick and basically can’t listen to music anymore. Good times.’
–ExecutiveChimp

‘I was once travelling for work and had food poisoning and had to pull over to be sick. I found an amazing village that I now live in. All because I needed to vomit in a bush!’
–Optimal_Collection77

‘Last week during the storm a tree we’d been planning to get removed at a cost of £1k+ due to all the stuff in the way got blown over in the storm.

‘It fell in such a way that it missed the greenhouse, house, plant beds and everything only taking out the overhead cable for internet. 30 minutes after it blew down a neighbour offered to remove it if he could keep the wood for his wood burner.

‘Two hours later he made the garden look better than before he started and took away some other rubbish we’d been planning to pay to get rid of.

‘On top of this we wanted the place where the internet router was in the house changed which is a £100 fee, but because the overhead cable needed replacing the supplier did the move for free!’
–HereticallyInclined

‘Accidentally missed two doses of some medication that I most likely would have been taking for the rest of my life. Felt like an entirely different person. Spoke to the doctor and only at that point did I have the side effects explained to me.

‘I’d been prescribed it in a bit of a rush and never got a chance to speak to anyone properly about it. I’d been taking it for 2 years and it was basically completely dulling my personality and sapping my energy.’
–Dependent_Oven_974

‘Heading into a uni lecture and vaguely recognised a student from China from some of our shared classes. Chatted all the way to the lecture. Sat down. Realised I was in the wrong place. Ran to the proper lecture.

‘Anyway, we have been together 20 years in November.’
–MonsterMunchen

‘I never used to read the newspaper it was usually in the bin by the time I came home. I missed the bus one day and had to wait 20 minutes for the next one. I happened to be there when the paper was delivered. I picked up the paper out of boredom.

‘There, a few pages in was a very small paragraph reporting a sexual assault, asking for witnesses. Boom, instant flashback to 6 months ago. I had put it to the back of my head as my grandma died the same day it happened to me. I was shaking, I knew it was the same guy.

‘I called the number after work. I was able to give exact time, location and description. The police were able to get CCTV. They later shared those images in the news and eventually found the guy. There were another 8 victims that came forward after recognising him in the CCTV.’
–SpoogleBoo

‘Our wedding venue cancelled on us with just 6 months to go as they hit some pipes while renovating and it was going to be a big repair job before they could continue. They wouldn’t be ready for our chosen date and offered us a summer date for the wedding and a bit of an upgrade.

‘We declined as we wanted the date chosen and people had already made travel plans (flights etc). We found another venue really quickly that turned out to be much better. The date was available because it was a Leap Day and for some reason or another, they had overlooked this.

‘So we had our dream wedding, on our chosen date with everyone we wanted around us, then we flew off on our honeymoon and got back just as COVID started gathering full speed across the world.

‘That summer wedding we had been offered by the first venue would have been cancelled anyway.’
–anakor

‘I got pregnant. Keeping her was a choice though and it’s the best one I ever made, it made me want to do better for her, I got a degree, found a career I love after years of absolutely hating the jobs I was in and I basically made my favourite person ever.’
–Suspicious_Safety_45