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What Are the Traits That Make You Resilient? They might not be what you might think.

By Nina Zipkin

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In the world of entrepreneurship, an ability to weather and rise above adversity is key to long-term success.

But according to recent research conducted by digital employee coaching platform meQuilibrium, it turns out that having a high-paying job or an advanced degree does not make someone more resilient. Not only that, but someone's age and gender doesn't have a bearing on whether they have this quality either.

In developing their resilience scale, the researchers highlighted traits such as being a good problem-solver, having control over your emotions, being able to maintain a feeling of optimism and a feeling of self-efficacy. Those are the traits that make an individual more resilient.

Related: The 8 Magical Benefits of Resilience

Fifty-four percent of the survey's respondents who earned $75,000 to $99,000 a year got a below average resilience score.

Additionally, 41 percent of those making $150,000 a year also had below average resilience, as did 47 percent of those with a bachelor's degrees and 44 percent of respondents with a master's degree.

Related: Stressed Out? Three Tips to Build Resilience

The research team identified resilience as integral to being better equipped to deal with high-stress situations, become more productive and influence how satisfied people are with their work.

They found that of those participants who had a bachelor's degree or higher that scored high in resilience, 8 percent were at risk for depression compared to 33 percent of college-educated individuals who scored low on the resilience scale.

Nina Zipkin

Entrepreneur Staff

Staff Writer. Covers leadership, media, technology and culture.

Nina Zipkin is a staff writer at Entrepreneur.com. She frequently covers leadership, media, tech, startups, culture and workplace trends.

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