On damage, dysfunction and courage

So I recently read one of the new Malcolm Gladwell books, it was called "David and Goliath: Underdogs, misfits and the art of battling giants."He addresses the concept of courage, and how although people tend to view courage as this inborn trait that some people just magically have, that its not really the case.
Here is what he had to say:

“Courage is not something that you already have that makes you brave when the tough times start. Courage is what you earn when you’ve been through the tough times and you discover they aren’t so tough after all.”

I dont know why this resonated so much with me, but it did. Let me just say that I dont feel very courageous right now. I have tolerated alot of dysfunction at times because change scares me. I have let myself be mistreated by others and engaged in people pleasing behaviors even though I knew it wasnt right. I havent always stood up for the stupid and crazy, and I feel like I should. Somebody needs to. Hell at times I am the stupid and crazy.

So if courage comes from going through tough times, shouldn't I be more courageous by now?I mean I know that I am only 30 years old, but I have at least 60 years worth of damage and dysfunction. I am broken beyond my years. No offense to my mom, who is probably one of the only people who will read this and whom I love dearly, but my childhood kind of sounds like a lifetime made for TV movie or something. Theres poverty, divorce, abuse, neglect, caregivers with mental illnesses, suicide, alcoholism, ect ect. By the time I was 12 I was broken and cynical and depressed and had no hope for the future. By the time I was 16 I had done what anyone with a childhood like mine was supposed to do and experimented with drugs/took bad risks like I had nothing to lose/ and just devalued myself all around because thats what everyone around me seemed to expect anyways. There was a turning point for me around that time and I worked very hard to transform my life because it started to occur to me that no one else was going to step up and do it for me. I dont think courage had much to do with it in retrospect, it was more the fact that it pissed me off so bad that everyone around me gave up on me so damn easy and none of them would have cared or been surprised if I had ended up making meth in a trailer park somewhere. I took that anger, and I worked very hard to try and succeed because I had so many jerk offs to prove wrong.

So now here I am, clawed my way to the middle class, married someone with a much more affluent upbringing than mine, had 2 beautiful babies, got some degrees, graduated in the top of my class a few times, got some awards and certifications, ect ect.And really I know that being a nurse practitioner is not everyone's idea of success, but  it was highly improbable that someone like me could ever do it.

But at the end of the day, I feel like I still have so much to learn and I am not adequate and I wish I had more courage. Theres a part of me that wonders if after all this I still am not courageous, will I ever be? I look at my kids and I want so much better for them. I dont want them to go through the things I went through. So I really want to learn how to be courageous. Its a work in progress.