The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything

the more you trust others, the more you, yourself, are trusted in return.

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.
—MAHATMAGANDHI

Often, the most difficult trust to restore is trust in ourselves.

Orin Smith, president and CEO of Starbucks (a 100 Best Corporate Citizens company) says, “Only a small proportion of customers buy a company’s products because it is socially responsible. But if they think for a moment that you aren’t responsible, a much larger percentage will have a negative response.”

There has been a tendency in the business world to confuse citizenship with philanthropy. They’re not the same thing. Enron was a great philanthropist, and clearly, it was not a good corporate citizen. The heart of global citizenship is about ethics and conduct. It begins with the way a company thinks about its role in the world. Does it simply exist to make as much money as possible?
—DEBORAHDUNN, SENIORVICEPRESIDENT, HEWLETT-PACKARD

In late April of 1992, the Rodney King trial sparked riots that resulted in the burning and looting of entire city blocks in Los Angeles, California. The devastation was immense; the loss to businesses was in the billions.
Amazingly, all the McDonald’s restaurants within that devastated area were untouched. They stood as unscathed beacons in the midst of the blackened ruins.
Obviously the question arose: Why would the McDonald’s buildings be left standing when nearly everything around them was destroyed? The responses of local residents carried a common thread: “McDonald’s cares about our community. They support literacy efforts and sports programs. Young people know they can always get a job at ‘Mickey D’s.’ No one would want to destroy something that does so much good for us all.”
McDonald’s sense of social responsibility created societal trust, and that trust produced clearly observable and measurable results.

As the Russian proverb says, “Success has many fathers while failure is an orphan.”

Listen with your ears—and your eyes and heart.

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.
—ALVINTOFFLER

You can judge a person’s character by the way he treats people who can’t help him or hurt him.