Geeks Vs Loneliness: holding the ladder for others

Spoiler warning: there are no spoilers in this article.

Welcome to Geeks Vs Loneliness, our spot on the site where we talk about mental health, physical issues, and the things that tend to isolate us. We have simple rules: not everything we post is going to be of use to everyone, but hopefully, there’s something in our extensive archive of articles that can help. If not, have a hug anyway.

For the purposes of this piece, though, we just wanted a chat about holding a helping hand out to others. There’s sadly a subset of people we encounter in society who have made it to the positions they’re in, sometimes on people’s shoulders, sometimes on people’s backs. But every CEO, every boss, every leader of anything, has got there whether they acknowledge it or not with help from someone else.

Here’s an idea, then, that we’d love to see catch on, and we know that many of you practice this every day: hold the ladder for someone else. If someone has done something that’s aided you in some way, pass that on to another person. Encourage another human, offer them support, offer them help. Don’t be one of the – thankfully – very few people who finds riches/power/success/whatever they’re after and then hoards it. Don’t be one of those who doesn’t pass good fortune on.

Instead, let’s try and find opportunities that we can offer others. Let’s share good fortune, and opportunities. Let’s, as cliched and twee as it may sound, hold that ladder for other people to at least have a chance of clambering up. If they don’t? Fair enough. There’s only so much you can do, and if people turn down opportunities that have been offered, that’s up to them. Switching metaphors for a second, not everyone you hold a door open for wants to walk through it, or will say thank you if you do.

But we do think it makes us better people to at least try.

Thanks for reading, folks. You all take care.