Hillsdale author Rosa L. Antonini will discuss her new book, “Resourcefulness: The Hidden Power Smarter Than Talent, IQ, & Technology,” at a launch-day author talk on Tuesday, June 9, at 6:30 p.m. at the Hillsdale Free Public Library.
Antonini, a resident since 2018, is a software engineer and data architect with more than two decades of experience designing enterprise data platforms, business-intelligence systems and scalable technical architectures. Her work in technology, she says, helped shape the way she thinks about human behavior, adaptability and the unseen “programming” that influences how people respond to uncertainty.
The 308-page book is categorized under business, leadership, personal growth, and self-development. “The library felt like a natural place to begin with the local community,” Antonini told Pascack Press on June 2. “Since launch day is Tuesday, June 9, I wanted to mark the day with a conversation around the book rather than a private celebration.”
Antonini said she and her family moved to the borough after living in Fort Lee, drawn in part by the area’s quieter setting and proximity to Bergen Catholic High School, which her son attended before going on to Penn State. Her daughter, who attended Fort Lee High School, recently graduated from medical school and is beginning a psychiatry residency.
“I love it,” Antonini said of Hillsdale. “It’s quiet, and we have the back, like a lot of trees … it’s very relaxing.”
“Resourcefulness” posits that talent, intelligence and technology are not enough by themselves. Antonini defines resourcefulness as a human capacity that can be strengthened — the ability to respond, adapt and create amid uncertainty, even when conditions are difficult or unfair.
“Talent, you can have a lot of talent that you never use because you’re full of fear, or you’re comparing yourself,” she said. “You can be super smart … and technology comes and goes. Now it’s AI, but later it’s going to be something else.”
Resourcefulness, she said, is different.
“It’s not saying that if you have $0 in the bank, you’re going to have a house tomorrow, because that’s not going to happen,” Antonini said. “But it is to know that if you have $0, you have the power through resourcefulness that triggers creativity … to see opportunities, open doors and take action.”
Antonini said the book is written primarily for individuals rather than organizations, though early readers have also seen applications in leadership and business. Its focus, she said, is personal transformation: helping readers notice patterns in their own thinking and behavior without turning those patterns into permanent judgments about who they are.
She compares the process to debugging code.
“They’re going to recognize patterns, just how I recognize patterns in a computer, in software,” she said. “Because they’re going to see it objectively, they can make changes.”
For example, Antonini said, someone who struggles with procrastination may come to see it not as proof that something is wrong with them, but as a pattern that can be examined and changed.
“I want to get the people outside the belief that something is wrong with them,” she said.
The book takes up comparison, social media and the sense many people have that they are falling behind. Antonini said she has spoken with young adults who are educated, supported and just beginning their lives, yet feel diminished by constant comparison. “They feel that they are behind,” she said. “Where does this come from? That comes from too much comparison.”
Antonini said she is careful not to dismiss hardship or trauma, and does not frame resourcefulness as “empty motivation.” Rather, she said, the book invites readers to recognize what has happened, make peace where they can, and decide how best, and how, to move forward.
“We cannot change what had happened in the past,” she said. “So we have only two choices, which is, we can use and move forward with that, or we can let that define everything that we do.”
Antonini’s first book, “The Zero-Sum Game of You,” grew out of what she described as a desire to help others by sharing what had worked in her own life. Proceeds from that work, she said, helped support programs she started in Uganda through Wonders of My World, including training in carpentry, tailoring, and hair and beauty skills.
“I believe a lot in education,” she said. “A lot of people cannot go to school or have a college education, but if you can break the link of poverty by providing someone a tool that they can then better themselves … you do break that poverty cycle.”
Her new book, Antonini said, goes deeper than the first, drawing on systems thinking, behavioral science, personal experience and research. Kirkus Reviews described “Resourcefulness” as “a thoroughly memorable read” offering “engaging theoretical concepts” and “practical, applicable advice.”
Antonini said “I made sure that readers see themselves like seen and heard, and almost like if I’m there with them,” she said. “I would like people to be happier. I would like people to be more successful, but it’s not really successful in the sense of the financial; I’m talking about really feeling good with yourself.”
“Resourcefulness” is available in paperback and e-book formats. Antonini said she will be at Barnes & Noble on Fifth Avenue in New York City earlier that day for a signing. She will also appear for a launch-week signing on Friday, June 12, at 6:30 p.m. at Barnes & Noble Paramus.
The Hillsdale event is free and open to the public. The Hillsdale Free Public Library is at 509 Hillsdale Ave.