The real wisdom here isn't that hardship tests character—we all know that. Rather, Mandela is naming something harder to accept: the same difficulty produces opposite results depending on factors often beyond our control. A recession might spur one entrepreneur to innovation while pushing another into despair; identical loss shapes people in entirely different directions. What matters is recognizing that resilience isn't guaranteed, which should make us both more compassionate toward those who break and more humble about our own survival of hard times.