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The concept of independence is different for different people, but many people have a mistaken understanding of what it really means.

Does being independent mean that you have to do everything by yourself and you can't let others do things for you?

Let's investigate the situation. Does the president of GM make his own car or his own refrigerator or build his own house?

That's unlikely, right? Yet, you would certainly agree that he is independent. Apparently, independence has nothing to do with whether you actually make the things by yourself. You don't have to do that. You can have others do work for you and be independent. Similarly, one person can help another and both of them can be independent. That's why people have friends or they employ people.

If you live by yourself, are you independent? Not necessarily If you need help getting up in the morning then you depend on somebody else. If you have somebody living with you who agrees to get you up in the morning then that will certainly help you and you will be more independent that way.

Can you handle your basic needs n life? If you can then that is more of an indication that you are independent. If other people have to do things for you then you are less independent.

There are also concepts specific types of independence. For example, a person may or may not be financially independent. That takes one kind of independence. But they are independent in many other ways. The person who needs assistance dealing with the basic aspects of life might be independent in many ways. Perhaps even financially, but because he is not responsible he is not independent in the area of responsibility. If somebody helps him with those things then he can be more independent.

A person may be successful at work and be able to handle all of the necessary things, and that means that in that way he is independent. However, even that person may be able to take courses in order to improve his officiency and abilities in work-related areas. That means that although he is indeed independent in work-related areas, there's room for improvement.

Independence is thus relative and it can be broken down into many types of independence. To be fully independent a person has to be able to be independent in many or all of these areas and it is unlikely that anybody is fully independent. We live in a world in which we are and interdependent world in which all of us do depend on others for our needs and in order to survive. No man is an island.