Thoughtful Thursday

Be Nice to People

At the place where I am interning this summer, many people call or walk into the office while they are extremely angry. For the most part, they have good reasons to be angry. They usually have very real and urgent problems that need a solution. However, anger, on its own, has never solved a problem. Useful anger must spur action.

However, the same anger that brought about action quickly becomes detrimental to success. This is always the case when achieving a goal requires the involvement of multiple people. If your goal is something that you can accomplish by yourself, go ahead and be as angry as you want. However, if you need to convince people to help you, being angry is going to be a problem. People don't want to be around or help angry people because anger always lashes out and hurts the people who are closest.

Instead of being angry, be calm and goal-oriented. If the priority is to achieve the goal, put aside the anger, because it's not helping. Instead, be nice to people! People like to be around and help other people who are nice.

However, it's not enough to act nice. It's very easy to pretend to be nice and friendly while maintaining another agenda that isn't very nice. The problem is that eventually these hidden motives will be revealed and the people who were once on your side will no longer want to help you.

If you are genuinely interested in the welfare of those around you, though, you'll find friends who will stick with you no matter how unpopular you get. Those are the friends worth having and that is a life worth living.