Tuesday is money/politics day on invisibleblog.com.

by Clyde Hughes

Have you ever watched a football game on Sunday afternoon where the quarterback was rushed from all sides, but he still managed to slip out of a tackle and find an open receiver for the game’s winning touchdown?

Your first thought was probably, “Man, was he lucky.” Maybe so, but there is a thing called preparing yourself to be lucky. In an economy where downsizes are the norm than the exception, it’s a valuable lesson to learn. You probably know guys just like that quarterback. They seem to always be in the right place at the right time, regardless of the situation. You probably thought to yourself at that time to, “That’s the luckiest guy I’ve ever known.”

You can have such luck as well, but it takes work, being observant and being flexible. In short, you’re preparing yourself to be lucky when the blitz comes from the blind side and catches you off guard. A friend of mine in Toledo worked for a Fortune 500 company several years back as a graphic artist in the public relations department. The company always supplied him with the best supplies that money can buy and state-of-the-art tools. Out of curiosity, he started to ask questions about purchasing, cost, budgeting, and filing that information in the back of his head. One day out of the blue the company announced layoffs and the public relations department was hit hard.

All of the graphic artists were let go in one big swoop. My friend had a severance check in his hand but what he had in his head was the most important thing — all that information he learned about his materials, where to find them, the cost, etc. Well, this Fortune 500 company still needed to produce brochures, fliers, documents for its annual reports, press releases, special events and so on and put out bids. My friend used his check to purchases all the tools he needed to do the job from home and formed his own graphic arts company. Today, that company is still my friend’s biggest client and his company has been profitable from Day One.

Instead of freaking out when the blitz came, he used his knowledge to find the wide open wide receiver for the touchdown. Was he lucky? You can say that, but he prepared himself to be lucky. Ask questions. Go beyond your job description. Know what everyone else is doing. That way you make yourself not only more valuable to the company, but you may have made yourself the luckiest person in the room.