Roots of Resilience: Lessons in Courage, Family, and the Power of Showing Up Every Day

What do you inherit when your family flees everything they’ve ever known? For Dr. Emily Watson, the daughter of Cambodian refugees, the answer was clear: tenacity, faith, and the unspoken mandate to succeed.

In Roots of Resilience, Watson recounts how her parents escaped the Khmer Rouge and arrived in Indiana with nothing but hope and work ethic. From growing up in the back room of a donut shop to leading a modern orthodontic practice, she tells a deeply personal, sharply observed story of what it means to build a life from scratch―one rooted in family legacy, shaped by sacrifice, and defined by daily acts of quiet courage.

Each chapter delivers a leadership insight forged not in classrooms but in lived experience. Watson shares how cultural identity shaped her professional path, how she navigated practice ownership while pregnant and overwhelmed, and how lessons learned in her parents’ business―like cleaning the floors and showing up no matter what―gave her an edge no textbook ever could. From hard conversations with staff to the chaos of early practice years, she is refreshingly candid about what success actually requires.