#12 - Trusting Others
An easy target, the cost of worrying, and unconditional trust
I trust everyone as default.
This often leads to getting scammed. However, it’s absolutely worth it. For the few hundred pounds I lose each year, every single interaction is a little bit better. Bargain.
Easy Target
I’m not joking about the scamming; all the time. Anyone that approaches me in the street with a good enough story will have me at a cash machine in minutes.
But sometimes I don’t get scammed.
Back in spring 2020 we ordered our first cabin from Sweden. Apart from a makeshift website, there wasn’t much validation they were a real company. We proceeded regardless. It wasn’t until the cabin turned up, months after wiring them £25k, that we knew it was legit.
Had we been less trusting we’d have flown to Sweden, met the contractors, inspected the drawings. The list goes on. It would have taken weeks.
It wasn’t smooth sailing by a long stretch, but it worked out.
The Cost of Worrying
There’s a lot to worry about when launching a business. Trusting people makes much of that worry go away.
The cost of getting scammed is tangible so that’s what we focus on. We have a harder time calculating the cost of not trusting others. By not trusting others, every interaction is a little harder. Worrying is expensive. When we worry, we’re not present, we’re not thinking clearly, we make worse decisions.
In one minute the cost of worrying might be insignificant. Multiply that by the 960 minutes we’re awake each day and it starts to add up. And that’s one day.
So sure, I might lose £30 occasionally to a con artist- and one day £25k to a fake cabin company- but it’s a small price to pay for peace of mind.
Unconditional Trust
There’s a wonderful book on the merits of helping others called Give & Take by Adam Grant.
The basic idea is “what goes around comes around” and good comes from giving.
The same applies to trusting. Unconditional trusting, like unconditional giving, compounds. People respond in kind.
Trusting others is the surest way to make them trustworthy. Distrusting others is the surest way to make them untrustworthy. A powerful idea.
What I Read This Week
The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes
A story of incredible depth. The breathless discoveries of the early 20th century, to the immense efforts of the Manhattan project, and ultimately the harrowing accounts of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A lot to ponder.
Not a light read- slogging through science is hard work- but well worth it.
I’ll be updating the books I’ve read this year here. Any recommendations? Let me know!
A final thought
“The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.”
― Ernest Hemingway
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Have a wonderful week.
Best wishes,
Hector