Agreed. Same goes for those pilots at TWA, Pan Am, those who lost their pensions at AAA and UAL or are furloughed from any of the airlines.

It's not just what you know or even who you know, but also the luck and timing Shiftwork mentioned.

While it's true that we can make our own luck like Stephen Coonts once said, there is always a luck factor involved just as was made clear at the end of Ernest K. Gann's "Fate is the Hunter".

Taking Command of your own Life: The Philosophy of Luck