Page 22 - Leadership Secrets of Hillary Clinton

OVERCOMING AND THRIVING ON ADVERSITY

Midwest values that she grew up with has formed the core
of her resilience. Rebecca said, “In Washington, being truly
resilient is a difficult commodity to come by, and some
people in Washington politics who have experienced great
difficulties don’t have the strength and inner core to re-
emerge as Hillary has been known to do. She is the girl in
school whom all of us knew, not just because she was a
straight A student but because of her hard work and desire
to learn.”
This perspective on Hillary Clinton reveals a major
aspect of being resilient: staying positive and optimistic
even as you face daunting challenges and operating with a
sense of purpose and intention through difficult times.
After reading about her and interviewing a number of
people who know her well, one thing that is very clear
about Hillary is that she is a self-made person. By this I
mean that she is responsible for her own success in life and
her own sense of resilience through how she has handled
her life experiences. She took difficult situations and
addressed them as problems to be solved with lessons to be
learned. She didn’t always get what she wanted, but she
also never really failed because she was able to make mid-
course corrections and was eventually able to get back on
track and be closer to reaching her goals.
Hillary acknowledged this about herself when during one
of the Democratic debates, she said, “I think everybody here
knows I’ve lived through some crises and some challenging

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