This is the first guy I've come across since reading P.T. Barnum's The Art of Money Getting (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=310056) who seems to fit the description of the "unlucky man":
The Rothschilds have another maxim: "Never have anything to
do with an unlucky man or place." That is to say, never
have anything to do with a man or place which never
succeeds, because, although a man may appear to be honest and
intelligent, yet if he tries this or that thing and always
fails, it is on account of some fault or infirmity that you
may not be able to discover but nevertheless which must exist.
Never have anything to do with an unlucky place, or an
unlucky man. I have seen many clever men, very clever men,
who had not shoes to their feet. I never act with them.
Their advice sounds very well, but they cannot get on
themselves; and if they cannot do good to themselves, how
can they do good to me?