There must be a word for it.......the phenomenon of being in the right place at the right time. Of course some people will just say that there is a phrase that may sum it up....'time serving' but they may just be the unlucklier ones who had to wait around quite a while. Prince Charles may be someone who falls into this category:)
No, what I am talking about are instances where unplanned events have a possibly life changing effect on what we do. One small example to illustrate would be that of a very bright legally qualified mate of mine....Noel Ross. I was teaching at TAFE part time, some years ago, when Noel came in to cover for me while I went away on holiday. There we stood after I had shown him the college when we overheard two lecturers conversing about Law a few yards from us. Noel overheard them say that they were short of a lecturer for a particular legal course.....bold as brass....up he walks and introduces himself to the two of them. In five minutes he had secured himself the job and taught there for the next year! Right place at the right time!
Another instance for me was when I worked on the Stock Market in London for County Nat West in the late 1980's. We had a bloke called Erol whose job it was to fix a lot of the dealing room computer problems....screens and systems crashing. He was an I.T. man and had no connection with the dealing room other than to be the person we often shouted at as things went wrong. Erol spent more and more time standing behind our Equity Makers.....eventually we included him in on the coffee run....he started to socialise with the team and in busy times a telephone would be thrust into his hand when an additional voice was needed to phone through a deal. Eventually Erol started to sit down with us and would regularly trade for the team. Times were busy...the markets were rising and Erol was eventually given a job he had inadvertantly fallen into! Right place at the right time!
Another example of this I saw was when one of my friends from primary school took over my teaching job when I left for Australia. Let me explain. I was working at Warwick Boys School in Walthamstow teaching History and PE. My old mate Steve Tuvey ...a carpenter and a football / squash coach had been coming in a few afternoons a week at the school to coach sport. He wasn't a teacher. Anyway the Headmaster was panicking when I said I leaving...he had no replacement. Feeling a bit guilty I said 'why don't you employ Steve a bit more than you are doing now....until you get someone?'
To cut a long story short he did. Steve ....who the kids thought was my brother......took over my work life at Warwick. He told them that he few formal qualifications but they said that the most important thing was that the kids thought he was a teacher. He dressed in a track suit...was good at sport and could control the kids. That was in 1992. In 1998 we went back to London for a holiday and while there visited Warwick School. Steve was still teaching there! In the time he has been there he ran Design Technolgy/ Woodwork .....PE....and was Head of Year 9 and 10. He was also responsible for organising the outward bounds trips the kids went away on. He stayed there 15 years altogether but has now moved on to a small private school. In all that time he was just required to to be working towards qualifying. He ended up one of the best teachers I have ever known. Right place at the right time!
This topic of being in the rightplace at the right time comes up a lot nowdays. Some industries...TV...Radio...the Media often run like this. My dad took a temporary job as a scenary shifter at Redifusion in the late sixties and progressed through LWT over 30 years to be producer. How many people would have random stories like this? Of course formal qualifications are important but often it is a case of being in the 'Right place at the right time'......and willing to take the opportunity when you see it.
