The Trust Fund

Have you ever heard the analogy between friendship and a bank account? It’s all about give and take. When you do something nice for your friend, it’s your deposit. And each time you ask them for a favour, it’s a withdrawal. And like every bank account, this is something that you should keep in balance.
Trust is a little bit like that as well, only slightly more complex. The act of granting somebody else a favour, or doing something good, is not always enough to make somebody trust you. What’s more important is how they perceive the intentions behind your actions.
For example, during campaign season a politician usually organizes charity events. Does it make us trust them? Not really, because we know their intention is to gain more votes.
You see, trust is EARNED, not given. The word earned itself indicates that it is something that we work for. And mind you, our labours aren’t always fruitful.
The above wise words are often said by leadership figures. But as so often happens in our young and clueless country, the idea is always brilliant where the implementation always falls short of expectations.
In the past week there have been several proof of these words speaking louder than actions.
A prominent leader in a financial company (I’m not saying which company, let’s say it’s hypothetical) has just decided something that would for sure impact an external party’s trust to the organization. And damage the company’s reputation as well in the process. In risk management terms, it’s a name risk. The same leader, has previously insisted upon the importance of trust, saying loudly ‘Trust is Earned, not given’. When advised against the decision, the leader said it is a risk we can take.
Basically, between all the other types of risk (operational, financial, etc), I think that name risk is one of the hardest to manage. You can settle financial risk as long as you have the funds, you can handle operational risks with a good BRP, but name risks must be handled carefully and well planned. And as I said earlier, trust is about the other party’s PERCEPTION of the intentions behind your actions. So the ball is mainly in their court, not yours.
Add to that the fact that this is a financial institution we’re hypothetically talking about, in which trust is a very important element. You are trusting someone with your money, here.
On a larger scale, the country’s officials are right now doing their own dance of he said-she said.
The criminalization of anti corruption unit’s officials versus law enforcement systems who allegedly took part in the criminalizing attempts. I haven’t been really following the case but it seems that the people have lost almost all confidence in the government. Tragic, since the president was appointed only 2 weeks ago, as well as the cabinet.
And people talk. Even without proper and adequate information. As a nation that’s been fooled around and manipulated by the government for almost half a decade, we are slowly trying to believe in democracy once again. And we are, in my opinion, still learning to fully comprehend what democracy really is.
Democracy is not ultimate freedom. And of course rights come with obligations. The people of our nation nowadays always seem to be in a constant need to demand their rights, and yet forget about their obligations.
With the uprising of social media nowadays, people share their opinions and thoughts, and are frequently quoted without any underlying facts or further analysis. And the democracy newbies, in a euphoric trance, reacts emotionally and collectively, creating the potential of a chaotic social uprising much like the 98 riots.
So I’m really hoping the government comes through on this, and deliver their promises. Because if they don’t, their trust ‘fund’ in the people’s account might be seriously overdrawn.