Last year, I was diagnosed with glaucoma in both eyes and I remember being in total shock when the doctor told me. The thought of losing my sight was frightening, and like others, I never thought I would be the one hearing this news.

I honestly don’t recall much of anything else my doctor told me that day. She showed me a large plastic model of the eye and tried to explain exactly what was wrong. She also described in detail the surgery that would be necessary. At the end, she gave me a pamphlet about the disease to take home and read later.

The surgery for glaucoma uses a laser and the patient is awake and alert throughout the entire procedure. The only way that I can describe the laser is that it was the brightest light I’ve ever seen, combined with a powerful sensation when the laser is fired. It’s extremely intense.

My surgery date was mid-December, and I was scheduled for the laser at noon. My surgery had literally just finished, and I was in the recovery room when there was a lightning strike nearby; the surge caused the power and lights to go out. For several seconds, it was dark, and then there was the hum of the generator and the lights and power came back. Fortunately for me, I was not in the middle of my surgery when the blackout occurred—but someone else wasn’t as fortunate.

At my post-op follow-up with the doctor, I asked her about the incident with the power outage and whether it was something that ever made her nervous. She calmly said, “No, not at all.” You see, she had an emergency plan and she was prepared for this type of situation.

When I woke up that morning, I would never have thought that a lightning strike would have caused a blackout, nor how dangerous that might have been for my surgery. The good news is that my doctor had already thought that through. In that same way, there may be times that you will be in the middle of an important meeting, possibly with a lot riding on it, and you will be faced with a pitfall that you didn’t anticipate. It is in those moments that you must feel secure in yourself and your preparation. Always try to envision the perspective of the buyer that is sitting across from you. By doing that, you will be able to drill down into those situations that might derail your sale. Then you can prepare, practice and turn potential emergencies into opportunities. More important, you won’t need to worry about whether or not “lightning will strike twice” because you’ll be ready.