At age 33, a home-repair subcontractor had established a successful business. You have to be quick and agile to climb around on roof rafters. He figured he'd always be able to do it.

Then an auto accident shattered his right leg, forcing him out of business, with no marketable talent except his skills as a carpenter. "I was stunned," he recalls. "I still had my van and my carpenter's tool, but what good were they when I walked with a cane and couldn't climb a ladder?"

He refused to give up. When he read of the current interest in the restoration of older houses, he had an idea. As a young man in trade school he had excelled in cabinetmaking and woodworking. Perhaps he could combine the interest in restoration with his woodworking talent and make a decent living.

He got letters of reference from the trade school and recognition of his reliability and careful work from former customers. Then he had new business cards printed, gave them to lumber merchants and carpenters, and let the local historical society know he was available for restoration work.

Today, his company has a solid reputation. "I made a good living as a carpenter before my accident," he says. "I knew I could do it again."

About the only constant in today's workplace is change. Nothing is guaranteed, but resilient people can learn to weather career setbacks with optimism and, sometimes, humor. When inventor Thomas Edison was asked why he kept trying to make a new type of battery after failing so often, he replied: "Failure? I have no failures. Now I know 50,000 ways it won't work!"