Everything in our human lives is about people. Relationships, sales, marketing, parenting, politics, leadership, business, medicine, money, animal rights, …everything.
More specifically, it’s all about what motivates people, how they feel, and what they believe. Yet in so many areas of life, the people-part of things gets forgotten. And that’s where it gets messed up.
Businesses that focus on the bottom line while disregarding the people they employ and the people they serve with whatever product or service they create, those are the businesses we instinctively dislike. Even if we barely know anything about them.
Doctors who are more interested in time and fitting in more patients are the ones we most want to avoid. No one wants to feel like a number.
The blogger who focuses on the number of followers and comments they have without taking the time to appreciate and communicate with the people who are already following them find it hard to build those numbers they covet so much.
Sure, there are shortcuts in most of these areas. Ways to trick or manipulate or find quick gains, like the marketer who figures out all the right things to say, tugs on your heartstrings, and makes you feel like they get you. But then after you’ve given them your money, it feels like you don’t exist.
This is also why so much of social media feels disconnected and unsatisfying. We all get so caught up in the number of likes or retweets that we get instead of the people. [Nerd moment: when we get the likes and retweets, we get a little shot of dopamine which feels good and makes us want more. So of course, we like chasing those numbers.]
But for lasting success in any area of life, build relationships with the people involved.
Let them know you see them, hear them, get them. And actually take the time to see them, hear them, and get them. It’s not always easy, but it’s key to better business, better parenting, and everything else.