Trust and a Haircut

This morning my son and I tried out a barbershop in the neighborhood. From the barber pole outside the door to the old time radio show playing in the background, it truly was authentic. While getting our haircuts, the barber greeted one of his customer’s by name and asked how his Thanksgiving was. Customer service was a top priority.

When it came time to pay for the haircut, I got out my wallet and started to hand him my debit card. He kindly stated that they don’t accept cards and were a cash only shop. I didn’t have any money on me so I told him I would need to run to the ATM. He smiled, handed me his business card and told me just to bring in the money next time I visited. He trusted me to do the right thing and I did. Five minutes later, I had cash in hand and a good tip to boot. In addition he just got two new customers.

The barber knew the secret of trust.

Why trust is important

• Trusting people gives them a sense of accountability and responsibility. When you put your trust in someone, you are letting them know that the decisions they make will be good enough for you. People in turn put their best foot forward and go above and beyond what you expect.
• Trust edifies yourself. In order to trust, you have to be willing to let go of control. This is an extremely hard thing to do for most people. However, it will free you up, the more you trust. You can multiply and be lifted up when you see others succeed because of your trust in them.
• Trust is intentional. Some people have to have all their ducks in a row before they trust, others are more free with trusting. The key to trust is that it is focused. There is a specific reason you are trusting. It is to achieve a particular goal or an outcome.
• When trust fails, you will grow and learn. Upon a trust failure, reflection on what could have been done different usually occurs. It helps you see where you can provide better judgement or even identify the character in others. There is a statement of trust but verify that is used a lot. It is good to start trusting and verifying, but eventually trust without verification will be the ultimate. The growth of individuals you trust as well as yourself will be phenomenal.

Trust is a hard behavior to just give away. It takes time to get to the place of the barber who cut my hair. He realized that to have trust and faith in people is the key to a great place to live and work.