TRUST!!!!!

BY: Darius Belejevas      

An asset which will change how you treat people and how people treat you. An asset so valuable that it has a potential to completely transform how you do business.

Would you care to guess what it is?

Actually, the answer is rather simple – Trust.

Trust is extremely important in our personal and business lives.  Keep reading and we'll discuss some ways that you can make the most out of this important asset.


The Benefits of Trust

Have you ever wondered why a particular person got that sweet promotion?
Or why customers so willingly buy products from a particular company?
Did you wonder why some can borrow millions and billions when others struggle to raise thousands?
Or simply why DLM gives priority to authors who participate in this guest blogging course?
We can come up with plenty of answers to the questions above and yet at the core, it‘s all about trust.
You see, we often think of trust as something of a nice to have social quality. But in reality, it‘s a hard edged, tangible, economic asset that enables our whole economic system. Even our currencies are based completely on trust.

How to acquire trust?

The beauty of trust is that it cannot be bought, which puts everyone on a level playing field. Instead, trust is all about how you act, how you treat people and relationships with them.

There are simple and sometimes elaborate techniques to try to influence people to trust you or to seem trustworthy. For example, putting testimonials on a sales page or building rapport using particular language that would appeal to a targeted audience.

Techniques like these definitely have their uses but if we don’t have actual qualities of a trustworthy person, they will only bring short-term results.

Luckily, there are quite a few things we can do to develop our trust muscle:

·         We need to trust others first. Just as it takes two to tango it takes two parties to build trust: the one who trusts and the one who is being trusted. And if we want to get good at being trusted we first need to learn what it means to put ourselves out there and trust others. For example, if we are selling a product and offer a 110% money back guarantee we trust our clients that they will not take advantage of our offer.

·         Stick to your word. When we trust others with something we expect them to commit and deliver the agreed outcome. Yet, pretty much all of us been in situations when the other party doesn’t deliver. It’s rather agitating, is it not? This is why it is of utmost importance to follow through when somebody else puts their trust on us. Quick note: it is also a good idea to become much more selective to whom and in what situations we give our word to follow through.

·         Never lie or mislead. I guess it doesn’t need to be said that lying is bad and we shouldn’t do it. And yet sometimes we do, we might call these “little white lies” or figure out another rationale to explain our behavior. But if our goal is to build long term trust, there’s no such thing as a good lie. A slightly more subtle variation of this is misleading – implying something that is not true without actually verbalizing the lie. And even though it’s much easier to rationalize that it’s not our fault “because hey, I never actually said that!” it’s still a deal breaker when it comes to trust.

·         Practice what you preach. If we want people to take seriously what we are doing and what we are saying we have to lead by example. People will not trust our advice if we are not applying it ourselves, regardless of our intentions.

·         Admit when you are wrong. Even though we have this great list of “to do’s” and “not to do’s”, there will be times when we will slip up and do something that is anything but trustworthy. In these cases we need to be the first ones to step up and admit our mistake. Making a mistake and taking responsibility can actually help improve our credibility. There’s a lot of value in taking responsibility for both the good and the bad.

·         Building trust is a long term investment. Lastly, we need to understand that building trust is not something that happens overnight. Even more so, trying to use some shortcut will often lead to counter-productive results. Building trust is a slow accumulative process of small deeds but if we commit, the rewards are countless.

Becoming trustworthy

One of the best things about developing our trust muscle is that not only it is an asset that benefits us in every aspect of our lives, but we also become better human beings in the process. And well, that alone makes it worthwhile.

And just before we part, are there areas in your life where you could use more trust?

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Darius Belejevas is the author of 2Have2Be2Do.com, where he writes for people who refuse to settle for second best in life and yet understand that to make things happen, we need to make hard decisions, work deliberately, and have an unshakable commitment to the idea of life on our own terms. He loves getting himself into adventures, takes the path less known, and wholeheartedly enjoys life.