Or you could look at it from the opposite angle: people are what they are, they are not going to change over the lifetime of any of us. If you wonder why they are like that, I usually seek the answer in evolutionary biology (I'm a biologist by training, although I've switched to IT 20 years ago)

Now if you start from "people are like that and I'm not going to be able to change them" the question is: "what are the goals I consider worth pursuing and how am I going to go about it?" :-)