In a pivotal moment on June 4th, 1942, at the Battle of Midway, American torpedo planes are finishing up their (very unsuccessful) torpedo runs at the Japanese carriers attacking Midway atoll.
Moments after these planes have been shot to pieces by the Japanese “Zero” fighter planes, three squadrons of U.S. dive bombers happened to emerge from the clouds at the same time and at the perfect altitude to attack.
These squadrons were traveling in different directions searching for the Japanese fleet and “by chance” happened upon them.
These aircraft managed to sink three of the four Japanese carriers due to the timing of the attack and lack of prepared defense from the Japanese (they’d expended ammo and time on the American torpedo planes and couldn’t hold off the dive bombers.)
By the end of the Battle of Midway, the Japanese had lost 3,000 men, 4x aircraft carriers, 1x heavy cruiser, and about 250 airplanes.
This marked a decisive end to the Japanese offensive in WWII. They spent the rest of the war defending and slowly losing islands throughout the Pacific.
We could be fooled into believing this random moment and convergence of three squadrons of aircraft was a brilliant plan and that we have the best minds and admirals and all the fuzzy stuff that feels good, but the reality is that it was an unpredictable moment that happened and changed the entire war.
How often in life and business do we ascribe things to our cunning or skill when it’s more a matter of happenstance and something out of our control?