Treat People With Respect

Last week I wrote about the benefits of keeping your ego in check. One way to ensure that you continually do this is to treat people with respect. Many people feel that if they are educated or wealthy they are somehow superior to those that are not.

Think about a crisis like 9/11 or a Tsunami. All of the social hierarchy disappears. We are back to the basic element, human survival. This has a tremendous equalizing effect.

I submit that some of us have certain advantages in life. If you are the byproduct of loving parents that encouraged you to succeed, you are fortunate. In any moment anyone’s good fortune can change.

When you are checking out in the supermarket or riding in a cab, do you engage with the person doing the work? Most of us simply keep to ourselves, and only engage when absolutely necessary. If instead you truly engaged with them, and treated them as an equal, you would brighten their day and in doing so improve yours as well. It’s amazing how people light up when you take interest in them. It is infectious.

Consider adopting the logic that you are no better than anyone else, just more fortunate than some. Make an effort to connect with the people you encounter on a daily basis. Take the time to look them in the eye and appreciate what they are doing for you at that moment. You may just end up being the beneficiary of the exchange. It’s all very simple: Just treat people with respect.