Trust Two Point Ooh

Written by Clayton Shold

“I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.”

If you are old enough to remember the Popeye cartoons you’ll remember this quote. Popeye’s friend Wimpy used it often. You see Wimpy loved to eat hamburgers but was too cheap to pay for them. He was looking for credit, usually from a patron of the diner. If he approached you would you trust him to pay you back on Tuesday – or any day?

I suspect if you knew Wimpy and his reputation you would most certainly decline to buy him a burger.

If you were from the era when this comic strip first ran in the mid 1930’s you probably sealed business deals with a handshake and little if any legal paperwork. Why, because people trusted other people. Here lies our conundrum, what has changed and why are we less trusting of some people than others?

I believe most people start out trusting other people, taking them at face value … especially when the degree of risk involved is low. Say someone introduces you to an individual and the person tells you what they do for a living. It is probably safe to assume you believe them; you have no reason to doubt their honesty. You are not suspicious of their statement, unless other overriding factors kick in. Did any non-verbal cautions flags go up? Did the person smile funny while telling you their vocation, did they shift uneasily, or did they avoid eye contact? Did your spider senses tingle?

In today’s society we tend to be more skeptical than in Popeye’s day, which is another way of saying we are less trusting. Why is that? Watch young children and you don’t see evidence of this. Can we surmise then that life experiences cause us over time, to take stalk in other people’s actions which become the basis on which we begin to measure trust?

Trust relationships evolve over time. As people experience other’s actions they begin to build a ‘trust vault’ of memories. The vault continues to accept deposits as long as the person continues to interact in an honest, ethical and open way. Strong relationships rely on familiarity, a sense of fairness, open communication and mutual respect that continue over time.

It is easy to bankrupt the trust vault and it usually happens quickly. Once the vault is empty it is very difficult to rebuild and regain the lost trust. Take marriage where we pledge to “love honour and cherish until death to us part”. The vows exchanged are a commitment of trust between two people. An extramarital affair, once exposed destroys most if not all of the trust accumulated in that relationship.

The past decade provided too many examples of top business leaders who didn’t just erode our trust, they nuked it totally.

Wimpy lived on hamburgers and broken promises, what about those who require high levels of trust to be successful in their chosen vocation. We hold some professions to a higher standard than others with regard to trust. If you are in court, we have an expectation of fairness and trust the judge to be impartial. Think of your financial advisor providing guidance on your money matters, do you trust them to manage and safeguard your savings as if it were their own. Think about your hair stylist (someone Wimpy might have called a barber or hairdresser), you keep going back because of the trust established over repeated visits, confident you will leave happy. Some professions hold themselves accountable to a high level of trust, our armed forces, police and fire personnel trust their peers with their life.

So what changed from Popeye and Wimpy’s day? Has our competitive spirit of winning at all costs eroded our decency, integrity and sense of fair play? Did it deteriorate because of shareholder’s greed in expecting quarter over quarter growth and profitability? Have we found it easier to initiate litigation with an expectation of a windfall decision that has bred legal beagles in sufficient quantity to sniff every pant leg? Have we become so selfish we will not extend credit to others to allow them to make deposits into our trust vault?

I believe the pendulum is beginning to swing back. Society is desperate for leaders we believe will do what is right, someone we can count on to fix what is broken, to take us on a path we can be proud to walk, to restore our confidence, to gain our trust.

We can all act as catalysts to accelerate this change. Reconstitute the principle you word is your honour, then ensure your actions support your words. Rejuvenate the notion your handshake is a binding gesture signalling your values, beliefs, and commitment to the other party. Treat others with respect and make regular deposits to their trust vaults.

This is much more than bumming a hamburger, it is about how we live our lives, the relationships we establish and the trust vaults we encourage and protect.

"I yam what I yam and tha's all what I yam." – Popeye

Clayton Shold -
	Clayton Shold is a co-founder of Salesopedia. His main focus is promoting the Kids, Cops & Computers program at Merry Go Round Children's Foundation that provide computers and Internet connections to financially disadvantaged kids.Read More >>
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