I guess you can never improve others but you can improve yourself. You are the only one that can change yourself. So if You cite many other examples and convince yourself that it is not worth your improving yourself then you will stay behind on a certain level till the end of your life. For those who read a story that inspires them - it is like getting outside the box and explore and experience a different level of their lives. Do something good is not what you want to do for others. You are actually doing something good for yourself. If you feel happy and contented and regard yourself as a good person - You have earned all that credit for your higher being. You reap rewards that you even do not realize. If the starting point is for me to think how bad the other can be so why should I be good to them, there will be no relationship because I have lost trust in humanity then I am the tragedy.