In business, I have a group of professionals I use for just about every aspect of what 
we do, and I trust them. I know that with a phone call, whatever I need will be taken care of, and it will be done as well or better than I expect, but this isn't where I learned trust.
My life is probably a little unique on Active Rain. I've spent the largest portion of my life in hot spots that put me in danger on a weekly basis. From 1978 through 1994 I spent a portion of every week behind bars. My role there was to help men, women and juveniles find a better way to live.
Some of those prisons were maximum security, others were prisons for the criminally insane but the majority were medium security prisons. When I arrived at an institution, I was frisked and cleared for entry. Any item that could be used as a weapon was confiscated until my departure. Then, large metal doors would open, I would enter and the doors would close. At that point, it was just me and the population.
From that moment on, I knew that I was completely vulnerable until the guards could get through that long series of doors to get to me. I spent many thousands of hours in that scenario. Often, I was off camera. In the early days there were no cameras. Many times I was in a solitary confinement cell. Once I crossed that threshold I became invisible to the administration.
What kept me safe? Trust. I trusted the facility, I trusted the inmates who didn't see me as one of the "us and them" and most of all I trusted God to keep me safe.
The second place I learned trust was in the Ukraine. When communism collapsed, I was contacted by a group out of Chicago who was going into the Ukraine to start a college. Because of my academic pedigree they asked me to help them. I didn't speak Russian at the time, and I didn't know anything about the Ukraine.
Of course I said, "Yes!" If I thought the jail was intense, the Ukraine was that multiplied by 1000. The country was in its first days of freedom and capitalism. They were just learning how to make it on their own. The central government did not provide cradle to grave subsistence anymore. Now, you had to figure out how to pay your bills and take care of your family on your own. That created a large opportunity for crime.
Every American was a target because most Ukrainians thought all Americans were rich, and in a strange way, they were right. The average income in the parts of the country I worked was about $4500 a year. A welfare recipient in the U. S. 
does better than that.
After my last trip, the gentleman who took my apartment was beaten into a coma because he was out taking pictures with a nice digital camera. Three men approached him, demanded the camera and when he declined they beat him and took his camera, cell phone and wallet. It's a dangerous place to live everyday.
Why do I keep going back? Trust. I trust the mission we're on. The college is well on its way to becoming a force in Zaporozhye, Ukraine. We've been able to get students through the school and through their Master's degrees in the U. S. They will eventually take our places as the faculty. We've graduated fourteen classes from the college. It has been a great success.
In business, I look for people who I know will always have my back while I cover theirs. After spending so much time in prison and in the Ukraine, my senses are extremely sharp. I can see a phony from a block away. I'm very sensitive to a person's level of trustworthiness. I can size most people up by watching and listening to them. I am quick to jettison people I can't trust, and I reward those I can with a lot of opportunities. Trust is everything in life and in business.
This post is a submission to the ActiveRain / Adobe EchoSign Trust Contest. I could possibly win a prize. You can find out about the contest by clicking here
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