Army of one? We’ll I used to think so, control and the pursuit of perfection are easier to achieve when you isolate and eliminate variables. Fewer people means fewer mistakes, fewer chances to let someone mess up your vision and seemingly most important, slow you down.  As someone who always thought that “I don’t play well with others” was an acceptable philosophy I can tell you there is nothing further from the truth.

The young believe we are masters of our own universe, full of answers, ready to challenge and take on the challenges of the world. However as we age we realize how little we know and the deep truth about ourselves is that we are afraid. Afraid to be proven wrong, to be vulnerable with our ideas and feelings, and in the end fail or be hurt.

“When we realize how little we mean to the universe, we realize how important we are to each other.” - Tom DeLonge

As we age we realize how much other people mean, failures will still happen, but there will be someone to help you up. Successes will be more glorious and often on a larger scale as the volume of work produced by two, three, or dozens is more than one can do alone. What’s more you will grow, learn from the strengths and weakness of others more about your own. You will be at ease knowing that you no longer have to do everything, instead you can focus on a few things and do them extremely well. What’s more you’ll be inspired by the passion of those around you and throw that into your work.

So next time someone reaches out, listen. Give up some control and let yourself, your work, and life be vulnerable to the wonderful change, passion, and inspiration that others can bring to it. For if we no nothing more than this we know that we mean something to someone.