New Yorkers may say that if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere, but maybe Houstonians should add that if it doesn't work out, you can always come back here and we'll take you.

After all, when The Daily Beast compiled their list of the best cities in which to start over, they named Houston number one.

As ironic testament to this, they illustrated Houston with an image of the most infamous part of our skyline: The Enron building. If even that monument to corporate greed and excess can have a second chance at holding legitimate Houston business (Chevron currently owns one tower and leases another), then surely anyone can.

With the economy pushing people forcefully out of their professional comfort zone, there's never been a more popular time to try something totally new.

"If you've lost a job, have accepted an early-retirement package, or are a retiree or soon-to-be retiree facing significantly smaller retirement accounts, what's stopping you? A turn of events is an unexpected opportunity to reinvent your own career. You may never have a better chance, or reason, to do so — to get excited about work once again," writes list author Kerry Hannon.

So to find the best places to make a change, Hannon analyzed the economic data: what cities have a high rate of small business growth, low unemployment, high incomes, and a low cost of living, support charities and non-profits (a large part of new businesses) and have access to higher education (important for retraining).

Houston came out on top, followed by Omaha and Dallas.

Houston's small business growth rate of 0.8 percent doesn't sound too impressive, but with small businesses hit hard by the recession, it's one of the few cities on the list that has a positive rate at all (only No. 6 Seattle is higher, with 1.2 percent growth).

Houston also earned high marks for its combination of relatively low unemployment (8.7 percent), high per capita income (just over $43,500) and a cost of living index score of only 91.2 (100 is the national average). Combine this with our number two ranking by Charity Navigator as a non-profit-friendly city, and Houston has all the factors in place to successfully start the career people always dreamed of.