People Matter, We need People In Our Lives

We meet no ordinary people in our lives. If you give them a chance,
everyone has something amazing to offer. – Ryan Seacrest

Unless you are a recluse, living in the mountains all by yourself, you are most likely to be dealing with many people on a regular basis. People, not animals and robots, are responsible for human civilization and human beings are, by nature, social.

Some animals like monkeys even scratch each others’ back. Interdependence is at the core of society as a civilization. Individually, we may be independent, but we need each others’ strengths and support. The support can be moral or emotional, or it can be understanding and validation.

In short, we need other human beings for our fruitful existence and that is our biggest opportunity to serve others, to uplift, to solve other peoples’ problems. The bigger the problem that you solve, the bigger the value you become to society. And the bigger the compensation you receive in terms of money or recognition or respect and admiration.

Back in the old civilization, men grew their own foods and made their own tools and houses. Then they realized they often have an excess of their products and sometimes they have less of other things. Some people can make better houses and others can grow more foods and some others can carry heavy loads because of their size and physical stature. This lead to the barter system of exchanging things.

But there was a problem. The person they are exchanging things with has things they need less of or don’t need. This led to the invention of the currency, or what we call today ‘money’. You pay for what you need only and the person receiving the money can buy only the things that he/she needs. No unwanted items at our disposal.

Today we provide value to the world around us by our products or services and in return, we receive compensation in the form of money or monthly salary. But we have advanced so much in science and technology and become so much more fortunate as compared to ancient civilizations.

Today, we have grown so much in population that different persons having different personalities can pursue different interests and take different career paths and get paid for doing what they love. You see, all of this is possible only because we use other people’s products and services. Almost all of us need most of these goods and services being offered by others. From the smallest tools like a needle to the most useful services like healthcare, we use other people’s expertise and tools. We pay for them and in the same way, we offer our products or services and get paid in return.

Daniel Pink notes in his book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, as the number of jobs that require cognitive skill increases, people are more important than ever.

If you live in the forest all by yourself, then this book is probably not for you. We live in society and meet other people now and then, it is clear by now that other people matter. And that a large part of our lives is spent around other people.

It becomes imperative that we become mature members of society, someone who has learned to control most of our thoughts and emotions. Thus enabling oneself to deal with the uncertainty of people’s different needs, moods and priorities and unexpected events.

People will ‘misbehave’ from time to time, there are many factors that affect one’s mood and state of mind. It is important to remember that we remain tolerant because they need us at the time. As illustrated above, we need them at other times, we need other people for our survival and sustainability and growth.

We need people in our lives with whom we can be as open as possible. To have real conversations with people may seem like such a simple, obvious suggestion, but it involves courage and risk.
Thomas Moore