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"Those who succeed are well-grounded people who have seen success and believe they can do it too. They are not the type of people who worry too much or are easily intimidated," says Virginia Tech professor Michael Hochella.

Work-related stress is an insidious health hazard, especially for workers who, like scientists, take their work very seriously.

Small chunks of dedicated time can help relieve the stress endemic in scientific lives.

September brings inevitable but manageable stress for scientists in academia.

When a scientist is confronted with a colleague who is struggling with personal problems, there are no easy answers.

A growing body of research and experience suggest that individuals possessing personal resilience are more likely to overcome career roadblocks.

"Attention is our way of devoting a limited resource (our time and energy) to the most important information. By almost any measure, productivity hinges on this most basic of skills," says G. Andrew Mickley, professor of psychology.

By making concessions to her supervisors and by working hard to keep her own frustrations in check, Barbara was ultimately able to complete her doctorate.

"I'll admit to occasional heavy use of both alcohol and marijuana when my experiments go bad, my relationships suck, and my car needs new brakes and tires, but do I have a problem with it?" says postdoc B.

The challenges of scientific career advancement can be especially daunting for women, foreign trainees, racial and ethnic minorities, and first-generation college students; mentorship can help bridge this gap.

"Rarely does science run a straight, predictable course. Some of the detours and accidents proved to be the greatest breakthroughs," says Debbie Mandel, stress management expert.

"This is a great time to be an economist. Interesting, socially relevant, and empirically grounded research is now widely appreciated in the discipline." --Christina Fong

"Go through the work in progress and come to an agreement about which parts of it are nearly complete and which parts may be completed by others." --Frederick Maxfield.

"No one is perfect, ... that's why pencils have erasers." --Author Unknown