Trust makes the world go round
Trust makes the world go round. Just consider a basic thing such as money. Central banks can create new money out of thin air. The only thing that prevents money from becoming worthless tomorrow – regardless if it is dollars or Bitcoins – is that everyone continues to trust them.
In countries where people trust each other more, crime and corruption is low. This makes business easy, which makes the countries richer.
About 79% of the people in the Nordics and China agree that “other people can be trusted” while trust in Eastern Europe and Russia has declined significantly since the early 1990’s to around 50%.
In Russia it is even seen as a sign of intelligence NOT to trust anyone else.
In Kenya and Kuwait only around 25% of the people think that others can be trusted.
And sure – countries like Kuwait and Russia can indeed get by for a while thanks to natural resources such as oil or gas – but in countries where trust is low, challenges for entrepreneurs will be greater, which naturally results in less innovation and less sustainable job-creation.
Oil and gas runs dry, while a culture of entrepreneurial innovation is an endless fountain of wealth.
Now – all of this sounds nice, but fact is that cheating and lying are natural social strategies given to us by evolution – engraved in our DNA. So isn’t distrust “natural”?
Yes. A world with 100% trust is indeed an Utopia. It will never happen.
But on the other hand, there is nothing that says that we need to continue to be enslaved by our inherited weaknesses either.
We are most probably the only species on this planet that can reflect upon our own existence.
This gives us a choice.
We can continue to be driven by short term gains, or actively contribute to a better world based on more honesty and trust – simply by being honest and trustworthy ourselves.
At Sonetel we believe that any successful long-term business has to be based on honesty and transparency.
It is simply the best strategy for long term success.
For your business. And for humanity.
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Read more about interpersonal trust here:
Photo from Wikipedia commons, by Wilfredor.