FALLING FOR TRUST
I was up 140 feet,
Staring over the cliff’s edge
at the top of the waterfall.
“Turn around and lean back!”
Jairo hollered.
I just met Hairo an hour earlier.
He gave me a 2 minute lesson on repelling,
And here I was…
Turning around and leaning back into the abyss.
I was mindful of the TRUST I was placing in him,
And mindful of the trust whoever owned Jairo’s company was placing on him.
TRUST, TRUST, TRUST…
That is what business is all about…
CLIENTS trusting that our company can help them resolve their situation and deliver on their needs.
EMPLOYEES trusting that our company can support them, educate them, reward them fairly, and create opportunity for them to grow.
EMPLOYERS trusting their employees to represent the company in the right way, and to deliver the company’s promise.
EVERYONE trusting that they are going to be paid or charged, what they have been told they are going to be paid or charged.
There I was,
In the middle of the Costa Rican jungle,
Standing on top of a cliff…
Leaning back into the abyss…
Thinking…
Do I do enough to gain our employees trust?
Do I do enough to ensure our employees know the promise we are committed to delivering to our clients?
The answer was a resounding NO…
I wonder what this company’s owner thinks about his business?
Does he TRUST his employees this much with people’s lives?
Or, does he just not care enough to worry, and is well insured?
The answer to that one seemed material as I was leaning my booty over the edge.
Does Jairo fully embrace his responsibility of keeping me alive through this experience?
Is he simply going through the motions of his job,
Or does he understand that falling to my death could seriously hurt his direct income?
How would feel if I owned this company?
What would I be doing to ensure that I knew the answers to these questions?
Why am I not necessarily doing those things today with my own company?
Somehow the concept of TRUST in business felt most clear when plummeting to my death was at stake, but TRUST is paramount in any business relationship.
I leaned back and took my first step on the vertical wall.
I felt secure, and tried to focus on the things I could control
And enjoy the experience.
As I stepped down and through the waterfall,
Jairo snapped pictures and smiled.
The energy and palpable concern he and his team had for my family and I, enjoying our time in Costa Rica was refreshing.
We seemed to have a similar sense from all of the different guides we had that week.
Could it be something in the Costa Rican potable water?
Could it be the “PURA VIDA” culture that seemed to be coursing through everyone’s veins?
Could it be careful selection and filtering of team mates by a dedicated owner of the company?
Or, could I be misreading it and my making it down the waterfall repelling along the vertical rock walls
Simply be a function of luck?
One fall… One accident could change this economy for so many people.
I tried to re-focus on the moment.
I just decended down a 140 foot waterfall as a novice.
My whole family, who I had sent down first to make sure the ropes held ;-) awaited at the bottom.
TRUST…
We stand on cliffs of different heights all day long…
Small ones and huge ones…
Falling off some could kill us, falling off others could frustrate us…
How much are you doing as a leader, as a business owner, as a manager
to build the right kind of TRUST with your clients and your employees?
BUSINESS & LIFE PIVOTS ON TRUST
Are you doing enough?
If someone hollers at you,
“Turn around and lean back”…
Would you?...
Do you?...
PURA VIDA!
In harmony,
Nestor