Working With People? Well, of course, you should! Let’s see!

Working with people is a quintessential experience that you must always excel at for personal satisfaction.

For more profits? Okay.

For more publicity? Sure.

For more help for the people? Yes, definitely.

But as you have not lived unless you have truly said “yes” and “thank you,” you have not gained the benefits from the world around you unless you have worked with people.

Do not worry! People are vastly different, but at the core, we are all the same.

It is not about are you on time or are you late?

In certain counties, you must be on time! In others? It is the norm to be late!

It is not about if you are bold or if you are meek.

In certain countries, you must be bold to speak. In others? Meek.

Instead, it is about hospitality.

We aim to serve you as soon as you land on our page. How can we help you? Do you need help?

We aim to keep things slow and easy, because the weather is so hot or dreary! Would you like a cup of tea? Biscuit?

What is hospitality to you?

In my life of 36 years, examples of the hospitality I have experienced firsthand have been:

-a cup of water and cookies from a tin

-a mint from a bowl on the boss’s desk

-a candy at the side of the dry cleaner’s counter

-a pen from the bank I used

-a tiny, dark green, plastic soldier given as a gift to me

These came from people in my country and not in my country.

Some I knew very well, others I taught, and some I took care of their child when they came to America as refugees.

Everyone knew hospitality!

“Sarah, please, stay! Stay longer. Would you like a cup of water? Cookie? Please, take one! You tutor my son? Every week? 2 hours each? He can’t read English, is he doing well? Math? Social studies? History? English? Bah! Teach him more English. He knows how to say ‘thank you’ now! You come and talk with me and my husband!”

“Sarah, take a mint! It’s free!”

“Hey, you worked hard today. Take a candy! Everyone loves it. Here’s your pay.”

“We just got new swag. Want a pen? Shiny, same as all the rest! Thanks for coming by. It’s a pleasure to business with ya. Not many people are like you.”

“Miss Choi, thank you for student teaching me English this spring. As a missionary kid, I don’t have much, but I thought you’d like this toy soldier. I hope you’ll remember us even when you become a teacher.”

Whether you are studying or you are already doing business, it matters that you work with people. We work with people of all different backgrounds and nationalities. We all come from different cultures. Sometimes it gets a little hairy. Like, someone is always late because no one in their country is on time, and their boss is from on-time-only culture.

What can we learn from each other, except to embrace the strengths of those around us?

“Yah, don’t lie! Tell the truth. That’s it!”

“Sarah, it’s okay to not tell them that. It’s better if we just say this.”

What is talking? Our cultures. Our personalities. Our people

Without our people, we are nothing.

So we do our best to not only serve those who are with us with strong hospitality, but to also lift them up to a level that they could not previously reach.

Why do we help each other out?

Why do we tell new kids coming up in the industry to “do this, do that,” when they technically may become our competition?

Because no one wants to play the game alone.

What fun is it if you have no competition?

We’re always fighting, always competing, always arguing who won!

Always.

Working with people is just the same.

We always fight, we always compete, we always argue about who won.

“That was my idea, not yours.”

“I gave you the suggestion! I helped!”

“Guys, there’s a malfunction.”

“Drat.”

When we work with people, we talk. We laugh. We cry.

We all get stuck in different places, and the worst is when we’re all stuck in the same place.

In a world that competes with money, time, skills, and knowledge, it is easy to say, “Sarah, that’s not fair.”

“They’re a third-world country, Sarah. We give all of this to them for free! Where’s the money in it for me?”

“Sarah, we don’t want the American handout, but we can’t say no. Our sons and daughters think that life is nothing but holding out your hands to receive! They need to study! They need to learn to work! Teach them English. They listen to you.”

“Sarah, there’s no way I can get into that school. Everyone from there lives in A. I live in C. I am not smart enough. I don’t have the money to get the tutors that they do. Can you help me? What am I missing?”

“Hey, Sarah! How come we always end up at the bottom of the boat, patching up these dumb holes that people shot their tempers through? It’s always me and you. You and me. Why don’t they just fight somewhere else? I’m sure it would have been fine if he didn’t smash the keyboard with his fist. Save, you idiots, save! Save your progress before you fight!”

“Sarah, everyone keeps asking me about the secret to success. I don’t know. My teacher did it for me. She helped me fill out my application. She attached my essay. I don’t know! I don’t have a computer. My teacher knows! She’s the one with the computer! What do I say?”

“Sarah, the lights go out at 6 PM each night. I can’t get ahead when curfew is this time. I study, but only when the daylight is on. I have ambition, but I’m stuck here at the bottom of the log. I am not the teacher’s favorite. What do I do?”

“Sarah, I work until 2:30 AM every day, 6 days a week. I am exhausted. I want to quit, but my best friend keeps begging me to stay. We need more people, there are no brains in the world who are available to help us here. Help.”

“Sarah, we do our best to study the models of success that are out there, but no one looks like us. We have no one in our region who knows the secret to these things. We look. We admire. We study. Is it possible to advance when we practically have nothing?”

“Sarah, I keep watching this one builder in M. Yeah, I know. Second-world country and all that. No, they don’t have all the resources, but there’s something about the way they use their phone to post these slipshod videos that gets me. You see this? You see the way they work? Look at that smile on their face. How the hell can you have so little and be so happy? Should I quit and go to M instead? Help them build a school? I could do that. We have tons of funds.”

“Sarah, we’re a non-profit that is always struggling. I am so frustrated. Should I just go back for my MBA and try to earn money at a for-profit business, and then come back? I am turning into a cynic. I hate myself right now. I am helping people and grinding my teeth the entire time. Be grateful! It’s free! We are paying out of pocket for you here!”

“Sarah, I’m thinking about volunteering. My best friend is poorer than poor, and she’s always complaining that I have all the money. Well, she looks utterly satisfied running her little acting troupe for 7th and 8th graders every summer. It’s like acting camp or something. I don’t know. Should I offer my help next summer and just ask her to take me out to dinner? I don’t really want to take money from her. I donated over $500 last year anonymously. She cried so hard, I just… I got this knot in my stomach and thought, ‘I can get you the money, but do you want me to stay?’”

“Sarah, my friend is a stay-at-home Mom, and I am so mad, because her house is perfect, always neat and tidy, always so fashionable! I’m like running around like a crazy person, I don’t have a boyfriend, I wanna be married, like my friend. It is so unfair. She has the luxury of a lifetime, and I’m stuck slaving away for hours into the night, without getting paid, and I’m supposed to find time to go on dating apps and stuff. What’s dating? Can I just marry?”

“Sarah, I’m the CEO of a company you know well. I won’t tell you which one. I am seriously considering starting up my own personal IP to give to my partner. I am stuck, and I have no one to call! The CEO cannot just ask for help, you know? Thank you for this website. Please hurry up and complete it so I can try to struggle in secret with your also secret help. Why is it that the higher we go, the less we can ask for help?”

Tell me your story, and I can give you dozens more.

What do you feel like you need more of?

Time?

Money?

Skills?

Knowledge?

We all want that, but some of us want it more, because we are lower in the ranks and we feel the pain acutely even more.

If you feel like you are taking care of your family, and you can’t study or make money, I want you to look around at your surroundings and think about what every possible thing in your house or area can be used for.

If you are at work, wanting time at home to save a partnership or a marriage that is already doomed to fall apart, but you are desperate to try one more time, then think of all the ways you can speak, act, and give before you walk into the house tonight.

If you are in a country where it is hard to get ahead, look around you and look for opportunities. Some countries have much money. Some countries have many opportunities. Some countries have much knowledge. Some countries have many skills.

Can you look at the countries that you follow?

Who has the money?

Who has the opportunity?

Who has the knowledge?

Who has the skills?

Which do you want first, you cannot get all 4 at once.

Once you pick your choice, go and talk to people.

See what they have to say?

Do you work with your grandfather every day? Does he lecture you and hound you until you are hearing nothing but his voice day and night?

Listen to your elders. Absorb their wisdom freely.

No one in the world is like them, who love us, who lecture us, who hound us day and night.

Find your people. If you think you have none, then open your window, look outside, and see what you can observe.

He who sees the most wins all.

She who thinks the most wins all.

When you work with people, think to yourself:

Who has the money? What can I learn from him?

Who has the opportunity? What can I learn from her?

Who has the knowledge? What can I learn from him?

Who has the skills? What can I learn from her?

You who see the most wins all.

You who think the most wins all.

Start where you are. Build steady, do not rush.

Working with people is your greatest asset and your greatest strength.