The good accidents in a seamstress's year

Ask a seamstress in Zagazig about her year and she will tell you the bad accidents first.

The bolt of cloth that arrived in the wrong shade. The big order cancelled at the last minute. The machine that broke in the busiest week. The customer who never came back to collect. These are easy to recall because they hurt, and because we tend to keep a careful ledger of what went wrong.

The other column is longer, and almost nobody keeps it.

The neighbour who mentioned her name to a cousin, who became her best customer. The cousin's daughter who sent three friends before the school year started. The man upstairs who fixed the machine and refused payment. Living in a town where people still have clothes made rather than only bought. Having learned the craft from an aunt patient enough to teach it. None of this was planned. All of it shaped the business as much as anything she did on purpose.

And then there is what she did with those chances. The care she took over a hem nobody would notice. The extra week she gave someone short of money. Each of those turned one lucky encounter into the next, because a good accident handled well tends to set up another.

Most small businesses are built on exactly this, and most describe themselves only by their setbacks. It is worth, now and then, reading the other column out loud. So much of what is going right arrived by chance. That is a reason for gratitude, accidents and all.