Member-only story
On the Importance of Self-Preservation
The world has changed and so should you
For the longest time, I’ve always thought that people care about me. I’ve always thought my manager would promote me because he cares about my well-being. I’ve always thought that my friends reach out to me because they want to help me.
Turns out none of this is true. There are a few people in your life that will genuinely care about you. You may not recognize it immediately, but eventually you will realize what you really mean to people.
I don’t mean for this to sound like a pity party. Honestly, I can completely understand the feeling. We only ever reach out to people anymore when we need something because the whole world practically works on the culture of quid pro quo. I’m glad that it’s this way. At least we don’t need to pretend anymore.
I learned this first hand when I started my own business. In the beginning, there were a lot of conversations. Everyone had an idea that there was a project we could collaborate on. Eventually, all of this fell away and the number of people who returned my calls became smaller and smaller. I realized that they didn’t have much to say and they were always under the impression that I was reaching out for help. These were the same people who I’d helped when I was in a position of some power. I wasn’t…
