According to Fortune, we’re living in a time of serious AI anxiety where only 10% of Americans are more excited than concerned about AI’s increased use in daily life. Meanwhile, five times that number—50%—are more concerned than excited, up significantly from 38% just two years ago in 2022. The anxiety is understandable given daily reports of AI-related job cuts and the technology’s rapid transformation of everything. Research from the 1970s and 1980s phone industry deregulation provides surprising insights, where psychologists studied Illinois Bell Telephone employees during a 50% downsizing in one year. They found two-thirds of employees broke down with health issues, substance abuse, or relationship problems, while one-third not only survived but thrived. The resilient third used what researchers called the “three C attitudes”—commitment, control, and challenge—to navigate the massive corporate upheaval.
Sponsored content — provided for informational and promotional purposes.
The Three Cs That Saved Careers
Here’s the thing about those Illinois Bell survivors—they weren’t necessarily the most technically skilled or experienced employees. They were the ones who approached the crisis with three specific attitudes. Commitment meant deciding to engage with the change rather than resist it. Control was about maintaining resolve instead of slipping into resignation. And challenge involved finding ways to use the crisis to actually strengthen themselves.
Basically, they treated the upheaval as an opportunity rather than a catastrophe. And that mindset made all the difference. Some rose to the top within the company, while others left to start their own businesses or land strategic roles elsewhere. Sound familiar? We’re seeing the exact same patterns play out today as AI reshapes entire industries.
Resilience Isn’t Fixed—It’s a Skill
The most encouraging finding from decades of resilience research? This isn’t some innate quality you’re either born with or not. A 32-year longitudinal study by Emmy Werner found that resilient children tended to have an “internal locus of control” even as toddlers. But here’s what’s really interesting—resilience fluctuated throughout people’s lives.
As Maria Konnikova summarized in The New Yorker, some people who weren’t resilient early on somehow learned the skills later. They overcame adversity and flourished just as much as those who’d been resilient their whole lives. So we’re not stuck with whatever resilience level we have today—we can actually build it like any other skill.
Why This Matters More Than Ever
Look, we can’t control what happens with AI development or which jobs get automated. But we can control how we respond. And that’s where resilience becomes our most valuable asset. As Yuval Noah Harari put it, we don’t know what specific skills people will need in 10 years—except for one: “the skill to readjust and reinvent themselves.”
Think about it—the workers who thrive during industrial transformations aren’t necessarily the ones with the most technical expertise. They’re the ones who can adapt, learn new systems, and find opportunity in disruption. Whether you’re dealing with automation in manufacturing or AI in creative fields, the ability to keep learning and reinventing is what separates those who struggle from those who succeed.
So the real question isn’t whether AI will change everything—it’s whether we’re building the resilience to navigate that change. And the research is clear: we absolutely can.
