To trust we must

Have you ever trusted people with your business only to find out that they did not only put up a competing business, but attempted to snatch your key clients away? 

Have you ever invested in helping people, mentoring them and even employing them, only to have them abuse company privileges, waste company resources, and now that they have left your company, they start  bad-mouthing you? If you are a business owner, then chances are, you have experienced these and much more. Painful? Yes. Frustrating? Sure. Should you stop trusting people? No, and allow me to explain.

Betrayal of your trust is a very painful thing, and it happens to many of us. Just think of the many families broken because betrayal of trust happens.

Here is a word of encouragement.

If you expect everybody to treat you the way you treat them, as one Southerner would say, “Well, I’m afraid it ain’t so.” It’s not going to happen that way. So, we have to learn the hard way.  Betrayal is always painful because you least expect it, and it always comes from people close to you whom you trust.

But we still have to trust people, and I will support my argument with the following:

– No one can be a leader if trusting people is not in the leadership equation.

– You cannot be a good father unless you trust your kids.

– You cannot be a good husband or a good mate unless you trust people.

– Trusting people is indispensable. 

Of course, we have to be cautious with whom we trust. There should be a system in place in order to prevent things like these from happening. But believe me, when the intention to cheat and deceit is in the making; even my lawyer friends and clients tell me that there is no such thing as an “air-tight” contract. People whose heart carries deceptive ideas will be very creative in pursuing their greed and agenda, and they usually get away with it for a while until truth is one day revealed. The business community in this country is very small. Everybody seems to know everybody, and clients always call and inquire before even they would even entertain giving the business to a new vendor.

But what can we learn when we are at the receiving end of betrayal? Mine is simple and the lesson is clear: that this should remind me to never do what they do and chalk it up as a lesson for life learning, and a lesson we can pass on to our children as well.

Now, let’s take a look at the results from an accounting point of view.

I may have lost a little business then, but I have gained all of them back today and more. As to those who have done business unethically, they may have gotten some quick gains, but their character and reputation is something they will have to live with forever. Sometimes, the experience may have softened their hearts towards repentance (they seldom do…), but the worst thing is that all the rationalizations, reasons, self-justification would only harden their hearts and prepare them to do more wrong deeds that would eventually lead them to their own demise. The saying, “Give them a rope long enough and they will end up hanging themselves,” is a note-worthy statement.

Some would not accept this reality. They still reason in their minds and say, “The end justifies the means.”  Others would even gloat at what they have done and consider their act of deception as being shrewd and smart. What they fail to understand is that the people they have betrayed are not stupid, it is just that they have accorded more than what the deceivers really deserve. And they violated the grace that has been extended.

We all have blind spots. We all have weaknesses. Hearts are deceitful and temptation comes strong when enticed with pleasure, pressure or monetary benefits. But the need is there to determine whether what is offered us and what we are about to do, would it build and strengthen our character or would it weaken it?

Meanwhile, I trust completely my new team of young and creative people who have outperformed and out-behaved those who have compromised and left. This is why the business is doing a whole lot better these days. Trust is still important.

I guess all the preaching of the olden days have been consistent.

One day, as we face our Creator, He would not be very concerned with our business, professional or career success, what He is concerned more is the character that has been built (or destroyed) while on that brief existence on planet earth. Don’t give up on trust. But profit and learn from the experience.

(Reserve the dates Feb. 19 to 20 for the next run of the highly-acclaimed Level Up Leadership Seminar and Workshop 2019 edition. Learn inspiring leadership lessons and valuable life skills in this program at the Makati Diamond Residences. For further inquiries or advanced reservations, contact April at +63928-559-1798 or register online at www.levelupleadership.ph)