There’s No Need For Everything To Be Transactional

Transactional people aren’t necessarily wrong. I’m just not one of them. What about you?

Photo by Falaq Lazuardi

People who treat everything they do as if it were a transaction tend to do very well in today’s world. I know I’m fighting a lost cause here, but this is one of those times when losing feels good. Perhaps there is something wrong with my palate, but this defeat sure tastes like victory.

Transactional People?

Transactional people see the world as a series of interactions in which something is always lost and something is always won. The principle may sound simple but it is robust enough to be the foundation for human society. It is how we deal with strangers: we lose money to win food, we give our time to get a parcel sent, we exchange information for information. Transactions are everywhere.

I know what you’re thinking: if we are all part of a transactional world, aren’t we all transactional people? I don’t think so. When I think about transactional people, I think of those who see everything and everyone as a transaction. To them, every relationship is a tradeoff.

It is unsurprising, then, that they do well in life. Think of all the time you’ve invested your time and money poorly because you…