Why You Need Someone(Or People) In Your Life

Independence is awesome. It feels good to know that you can do something by yourself without having to ask for help, right? In this age of self-love, it's easy for us to think that we don't need anyone to assist us. We can learn how to fix a sink or car or anything else on YouTube or Skillshare and this means that there is no need to call anyone for that.

In my entrepreneurship classes in high school, I learned about the basic definition of division of labor and specialization. Created by legendary classical economist Adam Smith, this concept emphasizes the need for dividing tasks to each individual according to their skills and the need for them to specialize in a certain field. They sharpen this ability and become the best at it, and this will be their field in every company in which they work. For instance, if one is a human resource recruiter, they cannot become a marketing manager and should specialize in the field of human resources.

Division of labor and specialization has been significantly beneficial to the corporate world but has reduced workers to bored robot-like creatures who yearn for more but are stuck on dead-end jobs because of perks cleverly implemented by companies such as huge pay, life, and medical insurance schemes, pension funds, corporate culture and so on. However, this could only have gone on for so long.

The rise of skill-learning platforms like Udemy and Skillshare, in addition to the ever-present YouTube, have demonstrated that anyone anywhere can learn anything. Thus, if you have a broken or clogged pipe in your house, all you need to do is not call up the plumbing service in your area, but watch the local plumber's demonstration video on Udemy or YouTube. This means that you can use that $70 or $200 to cover for days or weeks fuel for your vehicle. The only problem is that two weeks later, the problem recurs, and you do the same thing you did two weeks ago.

It's easy to see ourselves as capable of anything especially if our parents, guardians, mentors, and motivational speakers kept telling us how we could achieve anything we wanted. A woman can do what a man can, or so they say. Hey, hey before you call me a misogynistic pig, the point I'm trying to drive across is that sometimes you can't do everything by yourself. A woman can do what a man can, but sometimes she needs her dishwasher looked at, or the bathroom door repaired, and she will have to call a man to do it. Sometimes you can't repair your clogged fuel filter even after watching 20 DIY videos on YouTube and you will have to take your car to the repair shop. 

This is not to say you cannot do it, but sometimes it's best to leave that to a specialist. That person who has worked on similar problems for years and has quick solutions that you wouldn't think of. Let's put it like this, it's the person who uploaded that DIY on YouTube-sometimes you have to call him, or her over.

It's easy to reject help when we need it in the guise of pretending you're a strong, independent individual who needs no one else. No, it will not make you weak to admit you cannot achieve something and need help. The embarrassment won't come from that, no, it will arise with the mediocre results you post while trying to prove your prowess at something you have never done before. 

While it's good to possess multiple skills, focusing on that which you are good at enables you to become an expert in your industry. A computer engineer cannot be an exceptional marketing manager, and while they may be relatively good at it, it's best to leave it to the experts. In the IT world too, not everyone is a software engineer, some are best at programming and others are best at networking. 

Through specialization, the world becomes a network of linkages among various individuals who need each other to survive. No man is an island, and if you dispute my claim in this article I'll give you a challenge- 3 months of solitude with zero contact with the outside world. Make sure you get back to me on that.

Don't allow yourself to make avoidable mistakes because 'you're an independent person who doesn't need anyone else.' No, this façade is all bs and will ruin you in the long term. Allow yourself to feel vulnerable and weak in some moments, watching another person do something better than you can. If there's anything this pandemic has taught us, it's the need for each other.

We are seven billion people for a reason- to help one another out. The United States cannot make China be like them and vice versa. The same applies to the rest of the world. All in all, do try to learn something new, it won't hurt to get survival skills. While you cannot repair your car to perfection, your skills might just get you out of the wilderness and into the nearest repair shop. But don't think for one second you might be the next number one on-demand expert mechanic.