I have heard people keep talking about others saying, “He is a good person, he is a bad person”. And I wonder, do we really have good people and bad people in the world?

According to me, there are no good people and bad people – just mature and immature people. Let me explain.

In any given situation, you are mature if you understand what has to be done and immature if you don’t know how to handle it. To you, what looks like the actions of a bad person is – according to me – simply the actions of an immature person who doesn’t know how to handle the situation.

I feel that every person in the world, in every situation, wants to do what is good. But what is “good” differs from person to person and from background to background. From your background, when you are looking at things, you feel it has to be done a certain way for it to be good. This may not be how the other person, coming from a different background, might be seeing and doing things.

Let me give you a simple example to help you understand. Now, I am a chartered accountant. For me, numbers come so naturally and easily. In fact, I love numbers! Now, that doesn’t mean that other people who are not good in numbers are bad people. No, it is just that I have been trained and, therefore, I am mature in terms of understanding numbers. But, in the same world that I live in, there are many people who do not even like seeing numbers. Does that make them bad people? No, it’s just that they are different from me and are not mature enough in this particular area.

As human beings, we cannot all be mature in all dimensions of life. Maturity is something that comes from being exposed to different situations and backgrounds. The more you are exposed, the more mature you become.

Here’s my request: from now on, when you see that someone is not doing something good or right, just tell yourself, “Maybe he needs a little more maturity, maybe he needs a little more exposure, maybe it is the background he is coming from that is affecting his perspective on a particular thing.” Take a minute to sit down, talk to him, understand where his thoughts are coming from, his circumstances and why and what is making him make those decisions. If you can do that, you would get some real insights and it may even look like he is actually more mature than you are!

Every situation can be perceived differently and knowing this can make a world of a difference! So the next time you are inclined to think about a person as being good or bad, stop and think about how mature or immature they are in the given context.

Can you do that?