The Trust Meter:
What a WORD. Trust, rarely in this English language of ours does one-word hold so much meaning. Those 5 little letters put together to make one simple yet powerful statement affects everyone around us. Whether in business, your personal or spiritual life this little word is at the very core of all relationships. Your spouse, your kids, your friends, your co-workers and all those people in your circle have a “Trust Meter” and you are on that scale whether you know it or not. It is at the core of what everyone judges you and your character on.
The Trust Beginning:
Think about it. It is absolutely the VERY FIRST thing you learn in life. An infant has no choice but to have faith in their parents or caregivers for basic essential’s food, shelter, and clean diapers even though they can’t speak one word. What do they do when they don’t get what they need? Anyone that has ever brought a two-day-old infant home from the hospital knows the answer to that one! There is no sleep in the house for anyone. This changes when that child is old enough to speak. The needs are still the same, food, shelter and water but the response and the way they react to the way those needs are being met begin to change. Now fast-forward to the teenage years. You as a caregiver are still relied upon for those basic needs, (along with a lot of other new needs, mostly financial) but if you don’t meet those needs it can begin to harm the relationship. The fact is at this stage in life the newly forming young adult who is changing every day in front of your eyes has already quietly formed their very own “Trust Meter”. What this means is they now have an opinion of you and how trustworthy you are, and you can move up or down on that scale on a daily basis.
Trust Growth:
As we grow up and attempt to transition into this wonderful world as a fully functioning adult, we have a tendency to try to depend more on self and say things like, “I can take care of myself” or “I don’t need anyone’s help” but I think because we started out this way as an infant it is in our nature to need other people. I personally need to know that I can trust my wife, my kids, my parents, friends, co-workers, etc. and they should be able to have full confidence in me. Remember we all have our “Trust Meter” and everyone’s ranking can change on a daily basis. Let’s say I forget to take the trash out like I am supposed to. Well as bad as it may sound my ranking more than likely takes a small hit with my wife. Don’t get me wrong she’s not going to kick me out of the house, (at least I hope not) for it, but after forgetting the 3rd time it can start to cause a strain in the relationship. What happens when your teenager comes home late after curfew? That’s right, you start to watch them more closely, and they went down a little on your “Trust Meter”.
Trust Dependency:
Have you ever been in a situation as an adult where you were completely, and I do mean 100% completely relying on someone else for your safety, health or well-being? I sure have, courtesy of the United States Army. My first and only deployment to Bosnia in 1996 as a young US Army Civil Affairs soldier was very eye-opening. When you go to a country where you don’t speak the language and your basic job description for Uncle Sam is to try to get people who have been fighting for centuries to quit shooting at each other you quickly realize that your life is in the hands of your translator. This is a different kind of trust. This is complete “trust dependency”. When you are standing in front of someone with an AK-47 that looks very irritated because you are even there, and they are talking to your translator, you absolutely have to have complete confidence that what you are asking to be communicated is not only being said but said in the right way! My translator’s name was “Johnny”. I have always been horrible with names, but I promise you I will never forget his.
Trusting Your Surroundings:
Bosnia was ridden with land mines in 1996 from the war that took place there 1992-1995, The estimation when we stepped foot in the country was that there were over 2,000,000 land mines in the ground. That is a lot of mines for such a relatively small country. Because of the land mine situation, we were trained when you were outside the four walls of our base that you absolutely under NO circumstances walked on grass or dirt. NEVER EVER! If it wasn’t a concrete, paved road or hard pack gravel in a parking lot you didn’t walk on it. PERIOD. Your life depended on it. For that reason, when I got home from Bosnia, I couldn’t bring myself to walk on grass or dirt for over a year. As weird as it may sound my “Trust Meter” for my surroundings and more specifically grass and dirt had been absolutely destroyed. I did after a year or so get over it, but that trust had to be built back up.
The Business Trust:
Wow! How do land mines relate to the business and conveyor world? I guess the land mines themselves don’t but the “Trust Meter” does. I don’t want to end by saying a bunch of “cheesy” things like, “You Can Always Trust Russell Conveyor & Equipment” because we try to be realistic and honest about what we can provide to our customers. Can you trust us to make mistakes? Absolutely! Can you trust us to be human? Absolutely! But as humbling as it may sound you can also trust us to say things like, “I’m sorry”, “This is our fault” and “How can we fix this for you?” Truth is all companies are made up of individuals that are human, and I personally would rather have someone be honest with me and admit their faults than to constantly try to cast blame somewhere else when mistakes are made. However, we believe you can trust us to admit our faults and come up with solutions for problems. You can know with certainty that we will be there 18 hours on a Saturday installing your new equipment because you have to be up and running by Monday morning at 7 AM when your employees show up for work. These are the things that we try our very best to do well because these are the things that build trust. I tell customers all the time that if you find the perfect company and the perfect people please do not call us again! We are definitely not that company. People and businesses will let you down on a daily basis. We as a company fail, but we learn quickly from our mistakes and try not to make the same mistake multiple times.
Unfailing Trust:
The only One that you can always have a reliance on without fear of failure is God. When everyone around you has a “Trust Meter” that is constantly fluctuating His does not. The words trust trusted and trusteth are in the Bible 188 times. I would say that makes trust pretty important from a spiritual point of view. In Psalm 118:8 it says, “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.” At Russell Conveyor & Equipment we believe that if we are treating our customer’s the way we want to be treated our “Trust Meter” may fluctuate from time to time but just like “Johnny” in Bosnia you won’t forget our name because you know we tried our very best to help you and your business be successful.
