Greeting Friends,

You may have heard of the saying, the joy of life is not how happy you are, but how happy others can be because of you.  In our contemporary society, many people have this entitlement mentality that once you are perceived as being successful or simply because they think they know you, they will always feel you have to support them. As one of my mentors Oloye Akin Alabi, a member of the Nigerian House of Representative will say, “If I see you have an entitlement mentality, I will stay away from you”.

Living for humanity is the best thing we can do for humanity. It’s simply a way of saying, thank you. There are several ways we can live for humanity. We can live for humanity with what God has blessed us with, we can live for humanity with our skills, knowledge, wisdom, talent, compassion and time just to mention a few. The symbolic nature of living for humanity simply means that you are appreciating humanity for what they have done for you. How true is this? During your formative years in your business, academic, family and life, there were people who assisted you to in one way or the other to get where you are today, these people can be your friends, strangers, janitors, teachers, mentors and even the government of the day who made the environment conducive for you. For me, I have benefited so much from my family, friends, and mentors. I call these set of people ladders of success because you climbed on them to succeed. That’s why it’s always good to be good to the people you meet while going up because you might meet them while coming down.

Human beings by nature can be selfish. They always look for what they can get as opposed to what they can give forgetting that there’s more joy in giving than receiving. Even in the cooperate world, the majority of people we come in contact with can be selfish. For example, employers, organizations, employees and even the government always look out for what they can gain from you. They simply look out for themselves. It’s just a hand few of organizations and people who give out their time and resources to humanity.  One major reason why most people and organizations act this way is because they love people who add value to their life as opposed to those with liabilities. Isn’t it true that value has to be appreciated?

 It should be noted that the truly great people are the people who can assist you without asking for anything in return. Wisdom beckons on resourceful people and organizations who have truly benefited from society to give back to society. These can be in the form of Corporate Social Responsibility for organizations that have truly succeeded, and for individuals they can serve as mentors to the younger generation and progressive minds in need of guidance and direction. For more information about mentorship, you can read my article on Mentors Are Life Savers.

Giving back is a thing of joy. It makes you happy and fulfilled. There’s is more joy in giving than receiving. Giving doesn’t really entail giving money or material thing. It can be in the form of your time or probono work; how you treat and encourage people, going out of your way to help victims of natural disaster, being selfless to those who are helpless. It can even be practicing little things like saying, I’m sorry, thank you, please, etc.  According to Albert Einstein, “If you want to be happy, tie it to a cause”.  The question now becomes, what cause, goal or interest are you passionate about?

Let me share a little bit of one my secret. Most of the success I have reckoned in recent times and in life generally was not as a result of my ability, academic prowess or even networks, though, they played a role, but the main secret was because I have invested my time and resources for the progress of humanity. This is because I personally feel you will get what you want faster when you help other people to achieve what they want. When you appreciate humanity selflessly, nature has a way of appreciating and watering your garden. Isn’t it true that whenever you spray perfume on someone, a little fragrance is always on your palm?

Let me share a little bit of information about humanity. Humanity is about maintaining a gracious relationship between one another in the society; it is about building a bond amongst the society with the help of sustainable values. Humanity is about showing passion and empathy to each other in times of need. It is about regarding love in high esteem and kindness in all walks of life. 

Furthermore, the future of humanity lies in this oneness. There is no divide between the poor and the rich. As life is getting hard day by day, it is natural for any human to disregard the needy impoverished; it is natural for us to go with the business of the world every day, not giving enough to the deprived; it is natural for us to forget the fact that it is our obligation to help the destitute. Very rarely we turn to what the others do or want.

Thus, the service to humanity results in the oneness. It brings hope and life to the downtrodden and the disheartened. When peace and harmony become the main cause of every kind of service rendered to the nation and its people, it becomes the service to humanity. When an orphan gets a cuddling hand to light their life, it becomes a Godly gesture.

In conclusion, I will ask you a question, what are you doing for humanity to make the world a better place?

Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with New York City Department of Correction as the legal Coordinator. He’s the author of the acclaimed book Design Your Destiny – Actualizing Your Birthright To Success.