Getting a Handle on Trust

We've asserted that trust is important in business and life generally. So what is trust?Covey writes:

Trust means confidence. The opposite of trust--distrust--is suspicion. When you trust people, you have confidence in them--in their integrity and their abilities. When you distrust people you are suspicious of them--their integrity, their agenda, their capabilities, or their track record.

--Steven M. R. Covey, The Speed of Trust. The One Thing that Changes Everything. New York: Free Press, 2006, p. 5.

Would you do business with someone you distrust? Would you give them all your money to invest. Would you allow them to babysit your kids or let your kids spend the night in their homes? No, you wouldn't, and neither would I.

We've seen what happens with trust is violated. Look at what happened to the people who gave Madoff their money. You say the pain, anger, disappointment, revenge in their eyes. They wanted to torture and kill the guy for ruining their lives. Yet they trusted him at one time. It's a shame, really it is.

To be successful as an entrepreneur, you must act in a trustworthy manner. There's no two ways around it. And you have to be trustworthy.

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. It informs my connection strategy. For my ideas on connection strategy, go to my new blog www.Connecting.blogspot.com.

It makes my Your Stop for Real Estate , my real estate referral business go. See www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

It makes my writing go. For my ideas on writing go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com where you can read my mystery for free, download it for free or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can copy it.

It makes my new publishing enterprise, By and for Writers go. See www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com where you can get a poem or a short story published.