On the other hand, if you've already been at the bottom of the pile, if you've already survived on the smell of an oily rag, if you've been unemployed or part of a group that the 'popular' crowd don't want to be bothered with, you know you can deal with tough times - because you've done it before.
It starts at childhood, so let's consider our child-raising techniques. I speak from the perspective of having raised six children, five of them boys, and now as a grandmother of seventeen.
I profoundly believe that if we make our children's lives soft and easy, if we take away risk and challenge, if we always seek to protect our children from adversity, we weaken, damage and distort the precious young lives we're entrusted with. Of course we protect them from danger when they're little, but - danger and adversity are not the same thing. Real danger is life-threatening; adversity is just a situation that we have choices on - choices of attitude, choices of action.
Although many people know this intellectually, how often do you hear successful people - who have experienced tough beginnings - say 'I don't want my kids to have to go through the hardships I did.' And so - they bend over backwards, spend vast amounts of money, do everything they can - to smooth the path for their children, to make life easy for them. Very faulty thinking. There is a DIRECT relationship between kids who have life too easy or have been over-protected and adults who lack resilience. Often they are also selfish and self-centred to the point of narcissism. Sadly, these people rarely rise to their potential.
And in the school environment, look at the trend towards not making any kid feel like a failure. This is not preparing them for the real world - no boss is going to say 'Never mind the stuff-up you made, or the major customer your mistake just cost us.' From an early age, let them feel the consequences of their actions, or lack of action. It won't damage their psyche to be told they've stuffed up and these are the consequences, as long as it's fair and done with love and firmness.
Many people with wonderful easy childhoods, with every advantage and everything they want lavished on them, end up living adult lives of boredom, emptiness and quiet desperation. Softness makes us weak and ineffective.
So how do we develop resilient young people?
It's too big a topic for this one article, but here are four of my basic rules and two really useful books if you're interested in more.
1. Don't mollycoddle them. Very young children, starting at age two, can make a contribution to their family with chores and can be pushed to take responsibility.
2. From an early age let them feel the consequences of their actions. Let the punishment fit the crime.
3. Don't give them everything they want. Make them earn and save for their rewards and treats.
4. Link pocket money to tasks. It's not a right.
5. Read Maggie Mamen's book 'The Pampered Child Syndrome - how to recognize it, how to manage it, and how to avoid it. A guide for parents and professionals' 2004 (Rev. ed. 2006).
6. Also, read New Zealander Yvonne Godfrey's excellent book about raising self-sufficient young adults. 'Parenting Yadults' (2015).
I'm glad we've had a tough economic time recently. We needed it. To be an effective nation and effective people we must become resilient again. Resourceful and resilient people and companies thrive. They're prepared - with the right attitude. They know how to rise above immediate circumstances, they have the long view and they have determination.
Pamper your children and you weaken them.
Robyn Pearce (known as the Time Queen) is the MD of GettingAGrip.com, an international time management and productivity training company based in New Zealand. Get your free report 'How To Master Time In Only 90 Seconds' and ongoing time tips at www.gettingagrip.com 
