The fourth grade engineering kids met, had pizza, and finished their presentations with a little guidance from me. Tomorrow is presentation day.

Scott Adams, of Dilbert fame, has some observations on engineering happiness. I agree with most of them. Except one.

“If you’re young and you haven’t yet achieved some level of success by your own standards, by all means make yourself your own first priority. You can’t help others until you first help yourself.”

Helping yourself and helping others are *not* mutually exclusive.

Helping yourself and helping others are *not* sequential.

Helping yourself and helping others occur at the same time, and feed on each other.

It’s a feedback loop like I’ve mentioned before. Giving builds confidence and success. As you help others succeed, you become more successful.

Waiting to help others until you’ve helped yourself is like a company saying that they’ll start caring about their customers after they’ve sold enough of their product. Nonsense, they have to know their customers’ needs at the same time they’re developing a product.

Building a spirit of giving into your life will also give you the kind of success that can’t be planned for or scheduled.