Publication number: ELQ-20792-1
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How to Enhance Your Personal Trust Level
Trust is the most powerful tool that an entrepreneur can wield, both inside and outside of his own realm of control.
Introduction
One of the first harsh realities that every entrepreneur has to learn is that most of the things that are critical to startup success are outside of their direct control. Just because you dream it and build it, doesn’t mean they will come – that encompasses not only customers, but also investors, partners, team members, and even your own family. They won’t come if they don’t trust you.
In my experience, trust is the most powerful tool that an entrepreneur can wield, both inside and outside of his own realm of control. I’ve seen many examples of this in my own business life, and yet I gained a whole new perspective on how it works from a classic book by successful entrepreneur August Turak, titled “Business Secrets of the Trappist Monks.”
Turak first visited the monks for spiritual guidance, but realized as he talked to them about their business, that many of their secrets crossed over all boundaries. I was particularly struck by the lessons he gleaned on how to get and maintain trust. The best entrepreneurs I know seem to have learned every one of these, so start on these now if you want to survive among the best:
- Step n°1 |
Become trustworthy before you start a business.
We are hard wired to seek out trustworthy people, and to test others to see who we can trust. But the first step is to be become trustworthy ourselves. Like attracts like, and if you invest early in becoming a person others can trust, business people who you can trust will be attracted to you.
- Step n°2 |
Keep your promises to yourself and others.
The surest mark of a trustworthy person is one who keeps promises to others and to oneself, no matter how small or seemingly trivial these may be. Keeping promises to yourself is closely correlated with will power and self-control, and these virtues are essential to being business trustworthy.
- Step n°3 |
Under commit and over deliver.
Make sure that you only make business commitments that you know you can keep. Many entrepreneurs over-commit because they are desperate to have business constituents like and respect them, yet the quickest way to lose respect is to fail to keep commitments.
