If you would take, you must first give, this is the beginning of intelligence.

Relationships and communities run on reciprocity. People who give first, whether help, attention, knowledge or trust, create the conditions in which receiving becomes natural rather than extracted. Trying to take without giving makes others guarded and ends up yielding less. That is a kind of intelligence, the plain understanding of how people actually respond to one another. It turns sour only when the giving becomes a calculation, since people can usually tell.

Think of something you want, such as support, cooperation or understanding. Look for a way to offer something similar first, without keeping score, and see how things shift.