When building any type of relationship with someone, is it better to gain the other person’s love or gain their respect? Each person’s answer will probably be based on which of the two they think is more important in a relationship.
Many people may also think that just because you have someone’s respect that they also love you, or if you have someone’s love, you also have their respect. But that’s not the case. Many people may think that love and respect are the same or that once you gain one of them you automatically gain the other. But again, that is not the case.
First, let’s take a look into love. It has multiple definitions, and like anything else, it’s all based on the context it’s used in as for which definition of love you’re referring to. Love can be defined as an intense feeling of deep affection or a great interest and pleasure in something.
Now, again, let’s take a look at respect. It also has multiple definitions, and like love, it’s all based on the definition. Respect is defined as a feeling of deep admiration for someone or something elicited by their abilities, qualities or achievements or due regard for the feelings, wishes, rights or traditions of others.
When building any type of relationship, whether it’s a platonic one or a romantic one, I think it is more important to gain someone’s respect rather than their love. As the relationship grows throughout the time you know them, you can gain their love, whether it’s a platonic relationship or a romantic relationship.
Once you have someone’s respect, you can gain a lot more than if you had someone’s love. Having someone’s respect can help you later when you may need someone for something. If you went through the time to gain someone’s respect, they will most likely help you when you need it, like using them as a reference for a job application.
But they can also help you when you find yourself struggling with something. If someone respects you, they may not want to see you struggle with something they can help with, and thus, that will make the relationship even stronger.
When you love someone, or someone loves you, it doesn’t matter what type of love it is, but it will not get you as far in the real world as respect will. Respect is what most business relationships are built on that and work ethic.
You can build a relationship on love, but it is easier to lose or fall out of love with someone than it is to lose respect from someone. Once you have someone’s respect, in order for you to lose that or damage that respect, you would have to do something major.
Most people do not just go around and hand out their respect or build a relationship on respect overnight. It takes a while to build a nice strong and stable relationship on the factor of respect that is supported by other factors like love.
You can still build a relationship on love, but if that is the first or only thing the relationship is built on, it can fall apart faster and easier than a relationship built on respect first and then backed up and supported with other factors of the relationship.
