I'm afraid I have to vehemently disagree with you on this one. This sounds a lot like Rand-style cynicism, a philosophy that one need be very narrow minded and myopic to endorse. Sometimes people are jerks, and you will have times in your life that you get hurt by people you care about pretty bad. That doesn't make all people bad, and it doesn't mean that the next person will also hurt you. Becoming a cynic is the fast track to a not so fulfilling life, IMO. The best part of life to me is forming and maintaining relationships, friends, family, loves, colleagues. I'm not really a very social person, so don't read this as me saying that more is better. I do, however, firmly believe that forming strong bonds with others, even just a few others, is the best we can hope for. "Trying to make other people happy" is different from bringing others happiness through your actions, which hopefully comes naturally (and reciprocally) when dealing with loved ones.