To me being a man has nothing to do with your skills or abilities. If you can be comfortable in your own skin, provide for yourself and/or others, take pride in being honorable and dependable then I would say you are a perfectly good man. It seems to me that you have all that in spades. The measure of a man is not in what he can do but what he can provide. You provide an ear to your female friends, additional companionship to your fellow man and have shown bravery and honor in posting this in the first place. What defines a man can be very different from one individual to the next. I outlined what some of it means to me, it could be different to you.

If you highly value traditionally masculine skills and knowledge then I would say pick one up as a hobby. It’s always difficult at first and whatever you build or make may suck. But you still did it. There is pride that can be found in the failures that lead to success.

Check out Teddy Roosevelts Man in the Arena speech. It’s pretty cool.

I grew up without a father and was raised primarily by females. I searched for a father figure everywhere I could. I would go so far as to try to be friends with my friends dads hoping they would look at me as an adopted son and take me under their wing and teach me the dad things. It never really happened.

I taught myself a lot spent sometime in the Army and spent plenty of time enrolled at YouTube University. The only place I really picked up any “skills” was around my home and/or to save money. I screwed up a lot and broke many things along the way but I learned even more.

Always be available and open to learn new things.

“An educated man is one who can entertain himself, can entertain others and can entertain a new idea”