From a very young age the word TRUSTWORTHY has been a part of my vocabulary. I spent seven years of my life proudly a member and wearing the uniform, of the Boy Scouts of America. I attained the rank of Eagle Scout. During these years I repeated this word over and over again to myself and out loud. TRUSTWORTHY. It is the first "law" of a Boy Scout. By definition from the BSA we learned that , "A scout tells the truth, He is honest and keeps his promises. People can depend on him."
From these early beginnings I developed a strong feeling for the word trustworthy and I applied it to my everyday way of life. As I became older, (as that was some 40 years ago,) I feel that the lessons taught back then are as important today as ever.
With time and experience I have grown to realize that being trustworthy has more depth contained inside of it's meaning than I realized it had when I was younger. I believe it takes two or more people to be considered trustworthy. Yes you need to be true to yourself and your feelings. Trustworthy to others is how you are ultimately judged by your peers.
How can this be attained? The most common way is by working together and having similar goals. This affects my current life daily.
Realtors and home buyers ask me frequently, whether in person or on the phone, my observations about a certain inspection that I performed. My answer is trusted and many thousands of dollars are at stake based on my inspection of the residence and the property.
Now to attain this degree of trust, most often it must BE DEVELOPED over a period of time. Usually in the Home Inspection business, I HAVE NOT MET the buyer of the property until the day of the inspection. I will walk up to the buyer, shake his/her hand, introduce myself, explain my services, ask them to sign my inspection contract, and tell them I will need a check/cash for a contracted amount as specified. This amount varies and can be several hundred dollars depending on the type and kind of inspection that I am about to perform. This person does not know me, has never seen me, and I will be leaving with a payment of a sizable amount.
This is were trust is needed. Advertisements try to sell trust, I doubt they DO much. In transactions like this only word of mouth and recommendations by others seems to be the only way to believe that someone has been trusted by another. That's why trust between people must be long term and it must be developed into being a HABITUAL way of representing yourself.
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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