CHAPTER 4 YOU CAN LEARN TO BE RESILIENT Resilient people seem so capable that it is easy to think they were born that way. Certainly, some youngsters do show early signs of hardiness. Think of youngsters eager to learn everything and interested in everything around them, as compared to youngsters less involved in life. But, even if hardier adults report enthusiastic and purposeful childhoods, it may be a mistake to conclude that genes determine resiliency. After all, we know that some people emerge as hardy only later in their development. So where does resilience come from? E A R LY EX P E R I E N C E S T H AT BUILD RESILIENCE Our early IBT research gave us clues to the origins of hardiness. Years later, Debbie analyzed IBT's employee interview data, as to early conditions that differentiated the resilient and nonresilient employee groups. 1 Researchers in the early study were blind to the employee hardiness levels of those with whom they interacted. 39