• Accounting
• Advertising
• Aerospace and Defense
• Agriculture/Forestry
• Architectural and Design
• Automotive and Parts Manufacturing
• Automotive Sales
• Banking
• Biotechnology/Pharmaceuticals
• Broadcasting, Music and Film
• Business Services
• Computer Hardware
• Computer Software
• Computer/IT Services
• Construction
• Education
• Energy and Utilities
• Entertainment Venues
• Financial Services
• Food and Beverage Production
• Government and Military
• Healthcare Services
• Hotels and Lodging
• Insurance
• Internet Services
• Law Enforcement
• Legal Services
• Metals and Minerals
• Nonprofit Charitable Org
• Performing and Fine Arts
• Personal and Household Services
• Printing and Publishing
• Real Estate/Property Management
• Rental Services
• Restaurant/Food Services
• Retail
• Security and Surveillance
• Sports and Physical Recreation
• Staffing/Employment Agencies
• Telecommunications Services
• Transport and Storage
• Travel
• Waste Management
• Trade/Import-Export

Do you see any industry in that list that would not require interaction with people? And since this list encompasses pretty much all the jobs that are out there, can you, therefore, think of any job that would not involve interaction with people? Dealing with their moods and idiosyncrasies, understanding them, relating to them and spending time with them? There are probably a few non-people jobs out there, but the percentage is incredibly low.

Your job/career is one of the places where you’ll see Biggie #3 surface really fast. It’s all about other people and how you interact with, deal with, and treat them.  An incomplete list or reasons:

1. It’s a widely accepted fact that likable people, i.e. people who are easy to relate to, do better in their jobs; books have been written about increasing your likeability
2. In Trent’s excellent article about getting ahead at work, 10 out of 14 tactics have to do with relating to others
3. If you’re difficult to deal with, the only way you’re staying around is if you are skilled in your craft or, if you’re well connected (once again, relationships!  ).  But people will dislike you, and will simply put up with you.  If you have worked for any length of time, you probably know a person like that.
4. It’s hard to achieve anything but the bare minimum if you don’t have the trust or support of your boss or coworkers
5. Understanding the people you’re interacting with helps you “speak their language” – multiple tests like the DiSC Profile and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator are used by companies to help their employees understand how to better interact with one another
6. People have feelings, moods, and ups and downs; the better you can read these, the better off you’ll be

#6 requires a bit of an elaboration:

So much talking is done about the “real world” and “being professional,” while we’re in school or just starting out, that we get caught in the trap of formulaic approach to people at work: show up at your cubicle, submit your report to the boss, answer a co-worker’s email, host a meeting, go home.  Co-workers and bosses are just other chess pieces, moving around the chessboard.  We tend to forget that every single person around us carries with them happiness or sadness or excitement or gloominess, and all of the baggage (good and bad) from the non-work hours gets hauled into the office every day.  Likewise, there are bad and good days, for a multitude of reasons.  Sometimes, the mood of a person or a whole group is relaxed, and other times, you get a sense that just one more straw will break the proverbial camel’s back.

As such, there are times to joke, and there are times to remain somber and business-like.  There are times to pull people aside and check in with them, and there are times to just get out of their way.  There are times when playing with whatever toy you got at Thinkgeek.com will be considered hilarious, and there are times when it will get you an appointment with HR.  No matter how professional people try to be, they are still people.  If you learn to be attuned to how they’re feeling or to read their mood, you will be much better equipped to deal with them.

In summary, to have a meaningful job, to create a great reputation, and to have achievements that are above basic expectations, you need to be able to relate to and deal with others well.  Reading Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People is a great first step.  To paraphrase a song once again, “there’s no people like ‘people’ people.”

This targets guys, but could be useful to girls, as well.  So, if you’re wondering if you’re ready to do this thing called marriage, answer the following questions:

1. are you guys old enough to be married now or within the next couple of years? will you be able to stand on your own two feet, and support yourselves as a family?if yes, proceed, if no, stop. it doesn’t matter if she’s the one – there’s nothing you can do about it for now.
2. are you a God-fearing man, living for His glory? do you know what you’re doing in life and where you’re going?if yes, proceed; if no (to either of the questions), stop. you first need to figure out yourself, and how to live a purposeful, God-glorifying life. if you don’t have an identity of your own, if you don’t have self-awareness, and you jump into a serious relationship, you will ruin the girl’s life.  and no young woman deserves somebody who’s going to be dead weight.
3. are you ready to give up your interests and your comforts? change your habits, how you spend your free time, and how you spend your money? are you ready to sacrificially love her, by yielding to her needs and wants?if yes, proceed; if no, stop. you are not ready for a serious relationship until the need for companionship (which God put into your heart) becomes greater than the need to be in full control of you time, money, and all decision-making.
4. is she a Godly young woman? does she love and serve God, and is God’s regenerative work evident in her life?if yes, proceed; if no, stop.  it’s not going to work, if the two of you aren’t living for the same overarching purpose.
5. does she make you a better person? do her actions/words or just here mere existence call you to be more holy, more honorable, more dedicated as a worker, more responsible as a future leader of a family, more devoted as a friend, more of a thinker/ponderer?if yes, proceed; if no, stop. if she doesn’t make you a better person, you’re looking at marrying down. within the first 3 years of marriage, the infatuation will fade, the rosy glasses will melt off, and you’ll realize that you have to spend the rest of your life with somebody dragging you down, instead of spurring you on.

so, let’s recap: if you’ve gotten all the way down here, you’re old enough and mature enough to support and lead a family; you’re not a dead weight, and there’s a good chance you will NOT be a man who leads a life of quiet desperation, while his wife tries to do something, anything, to get him to show some interest in being a leader of the family.  it also looks like you found a wonderful girl who can become a wonderful wife.  final question:

are you willing to be wrong for the rest of your life?

if yes, things are looking very good, indeed. if no, forget about ever getting married.

ok, so maybe that wasn’t a fair question. i’m sure that throughout mankind’s history, out of hundreds of millions of marriages and out of billions and billions of arguments, there was at least 1 time where a husband was right. there has to be, right? right??

concluding remarks: notice, no question about whether she and you are exactly alike, or, on the flip side, exactly opposite. there are plenty of happily-married people who are complete opposites and plenty of happily-married couples who might as well be twins. notice, no questions about your and her families. they are secondary to the life that you will build together. some in-laws are harder to get along with, but, hopefully, you’re not marrying her for the in-laws. notice, no questions about how many children she wants to have, who wants to live in the city and who wants to live in the country, and definitely no questions about the color of the wedding invitations.  all of that stuff is secondary. if you are ready for married life, if she is ready for married life, if the two of you will make each other better and can become best friends and soul mates, and if both of you know that this life is not all there is, but just the beginning, then you’ve got a good foundation to start on.

just remember that marriage (just like love) is not a state of being, it is action – a deliberate, difficult, day-in-day-out working out of sacrificial love towards your spouse.