Guilt

The idea has come to me about the role that guilt can play in ones every day life. Every day people make decisions and choices that can affect they way they deal with themselves. If an action is done and the person performing said action feels a sense of guilt about what they have done, they are more inclined to not do that action again. The feeling of guilt can be too much to deal with sometimes and they will not want to feel it ever again.
Guilt isn't something that is able to be learned along the way. Guilt is something that one must learn in childhood. It is something that will stick with them all they way through their life if learned this way but it is not something that can just be learned latter on. One must be a highly impressionable age, such as in childhood to learn the feeling of guilt.
The question that arises is, if someone is able to overcome their guilt, how does that reflect on their character as a human being?