I am very sympathetic to those who lose their jobs to carpal tunnel -- I hope to avoid being one of those myself. While I haven't experienced any type of loss like that, I am sure it is emotionally devastating.

However, as this post was in response to mine (whether or not it was intentional), let me go a little further. Let's take an example of someone who worked for ten years as a data entry clerk. One day, he gets tendinitis in is wrist and can no longer touch-type with two-hands. What to do now? Some possibilities:

• Continue in the Job using new methods such as speech-recognition software or one of the one-handed Dvorak keyboard layouts.
• Switch to a somewhat-related job. Perhaps a job involving database design, where, with some study, the person could become an expert at designing easy-to-enter and maintain systems.
• Switch to an un-related job using previous knowledge. For example, the person could trade (or chattel) office equipment or other products that he has mastered over the course of his career.

Now, those options took me all of five minutes to think up. In reality, you would have to give it much more thought given the specifics of the situation. My point, however, is that unless the person has a dislike for the knowledge that he/she has learned up to this point, then it only makes sense to find a way to use that knowledge in the future. That person will have the hardest time creating a new income in an area that is totally new to him/her.

The way this all relates to "multiple streams of income" is: in my opinion, it is more effective to get income from variations on one theme, rather than multiple themes. Not that you can't do it with multiple themes, but it is harder. The person who is an expert in one subject and who writes books, holds seminars, provides one-on-one coaching will have an easier time maintaining those multipe incomes (because they are all related) than will someone who's a fitness coach, a computer technician, and is marketing a new, unrelated product on the side.

-Phil

P.S. -- Interesting story about tendinitis of the wrist. I play classical guitar, an instrument where carpal tunnel syndrome and tendinitis are major concerns. In the 1950's, a professional guitarist developed tendinitis in his right hand. That tendinitis soon destroyed his ability to play at all, ending his performing career.

Instead of moving to a completely new job, this person started studying guitarists who did not have wrist problems and reading up on the ergonomic use of the hands. He began teaching how to play guitar, and, as a result of his studies and experiments with his students, he developed a different approach to classical guitar playing.

He wrote a few books which were quite successful (and are still in print) and helped set up one of the first classical guitar degree programs at an American university. He then went on to head the guitar department at the famous Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, MD. In fact, many of today's top professional concert guitarists studied under him at Peabody. He's retired now, but all throughout his teaching career, he did not play the guitar himself (but it's obvious that he wished he could).

If you're interested, his name is Aaron Shearer. His latest books are probably the most-used materials to teach classical guitar at the unversity level today.

Now, is everyone who develops a disability going to have a story like that? Of course not. I am not in any way trying to trivialize the loss and grief that can come about from such an injury. What I like about the story, though, is how he used what he knew.