so i'm going to preface this with a word about advice in general. there is no such thing as universally meaningful advice. receiving it relies heavily on the particular nexus of every situation and pressure and worry and confidence in a person's life, the complicated web of where they're at and where they wish they were. so chances are you're going to read what this is and go "well that's not very helpful" and, yes, that's expected. even myself, i'm in a way different situation now than i was then, so it probably wouldn't carry as much meaning to me if i'd seen it today. maybe, maybe not. like sarumon in the two towers when he controls people with magically potent words, "if they [could report the words that they heard], they wondered, for little power remained in them". the words don't carry weight without the situation into which they are deployed.
(Read the post above before my little addendum—it’s not very long.)
In my twenties, I read a fact more-or-less equivalent to the above advice, in New Scientist magazine: some research group had found out, in a study, that people will feel more positively towards you if you ask them for help than if you help them yourself.
I don’t remember what kind of explanation they gave for this in the magazine article, but my (layman’s) guess would be that when you help somebody, you get a good feeling about yourself—your kindness, your capability—and that warm feeling is associated in your mind with the other person. Not to mention that you can now somewhat expect to be able to ask them for something in the future. You’re beginning to bind the other person into your interpersonal network.
The dark side of this is the Foot-in-the-Door technique. The lighter side is a useful tip for over-analytical introverts. :)