How to Mine and Cultivate Trust: The Most Precious Metal on Earth




Today I was thinking about all of folks at various schools and theaters, and all of the audience members who have put their trust in me with with GATJ. They put a huge amount of trust in me. Pretty wild and definitely not something that happens everyday. It’s big. It’s huge. I have to write about trust.
I’m sure we’ve all heard some variation of the saying, “Trust takes years to earn, and seconds to break.”
To earn someone’s trust is such a profound and sacred phenomena, it deserves to be rewarded and celebrated.
When someone puts their trust in someone they are saying:
  • I believe in you
  • I think you’re competent
  • I won’t let my baggage get in your way
  • YOU are not just a truth, but THE truth (in one way or another)
The party giving you their trust is giving you a valuable and rare gift.
There’s two sides to the coin I’m presenting.

Side 1: Consider someone who is thinking about putting their trust in you to hire you for a new job, to buy a product off of you, to begin a partnership with you, or take it out of the business arena and into a simple personal relationship. Ask yourself, “what can I do or what can I give that will surpass the gift this person is giving me that will allow them to put their complete trust in me.”
Side 2: Consider someone who has already put their trust in you. Yes, you need deliver on what you’ve promised. But you must also think about how you can go above and beyond your original promise. It doesn’t have to be anything extravagant, but something that acknowledges your appreciation for their trust—a referral, a plate of cookies, an extra widget, an extra hour of time…

The beauty lies not only in the giving and receiving of trust, but when someone returns to dip their pail of trust in your well because your special water provides them with sustenance.

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