Robert Stanelle

TRUST - FIVE LETTERS THAT MEAN SO MUCH

Lately I had been thinking a lot about trust and the incredible importance of that little word in each of our lives: work, government, our personal idols, friendship or love. To me, the word means so much.

Work. As one who has been a supervisor of many people over my career, I have always believed that you hire good people, you give them a little direction as needed, and then you get out of the way and let them do their job. You TRUST them to do what needs to be done and to ask a question if they need to. In this way, you show them you have confidence in them. You NEVER spend any significant time looking over their shoulder or second-guessing them. True, you may occasionally have a problem employee where you may need to do this sort of thing and step in to train or help out. However, I have found that if you hire good people and TRUST to begin with, the number of problem employees you have is few and far between. Most people want to do a good job if you will only give them the basic tools and the opportunity to do so.

How many of you have worked for a boss you could not trust? How many of you quit that job for that very reason? No one wants to work for someone they have no faith in or who has no faith in them. TRUST is a huge factor in increasing security for all and reducing turnover for sound business management. Yet we see so many poor middle and upper managers, executives, who fail to understand and practice this. Corporations? Enron and a thousand others. Who do you trust?

Government. The other day a friend of mine told me that the words trust and government did not belong in the same sentence. What is sad is that I could not disagree with him at all! Do you trust our president? I don’t. Our vice-president? I don’t. Senators? Congressmen? Any high ranking politician? I don’t. The IRS? The INS? The CIA? Any government agency? I don’t.

Our politicians lie – constantly. Our elections are not about who you trust, but who you may distrust less! The IRS audits and hounds little people making less than $50,000 a year, and the rich and big corporations pay nothing while driving cars that cost more than our yearly incomes and living in houses equal to our lifetime incomes. The INS can’t control the terrorists that come in to our country, but keeps out the wives of relatives of normal hardworking citizens. Why do we have more people entering the country illegally each year than legally? Because the system is so complicated and ridiculous that it is simply easier to come in illegally and just live your life without government involvement. Remember the oft told joke, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help you.” Tell that to anyone who has had to deal with the IRS, the INS, Social Security, unemployment, or any other government agency or program. Who do you trust?

Personal Idols. We have created a world of false idols, particularly athletic ones. Why? These people contribute nothing to society. They do something with a ball. So what? Meanwhile they rape, fight, take drugs and act obnoxiously in a thousand ways and we think nothing of it – give them another chance after chance - all because they can do something with a ball. We place our faith and trust in poorly educated and poorly behaved idiots. Sure, like in any field, there are some decent people here, but who do you trust?

Friends. If you cannot trust a person, they are soon your friend no longer. Think about that. A friend is one whom you can trust, have faith in. If you cannot, they no longer qualify. Simple, but true. TRUST is vital.

Love. You can pick out a thousand words in multiple languages to describe something about love, but I go with TRUST. Without it, you have nothing. With it, you have no jealousy, no adultery, no individualism, no sneakiness of any kind. You are in it together and you do it, whatever it is, together.

That’s it! Five beautiful letters that make one beautiful word. With it, you have everything. Without it, well, then ………………………………………………