You cannot do it alone
Trust is a belief that somebody is honest, sincere and will not try to harm you. You trust those people who are in your community. It is commonly thought that humans can only trust each other when they share similar perspectives, opinions and ideas. One cannot be successful simply on the basis of his own efforts. Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, are all where they are today because they formed a team, with whom they relied, trusted and placed their confidence upon. Steve Jobs- the founder of Apple said “great things in business are never done by one person.” And that’s true in every context of our life. Whenever we are required to form a group for a project, we feel more comfortable making a group with those classmates we are more comfortable with. We feel they are more trustworthy.
Open up to build trust
Trust is a feeling which occurs to us instinctively. The reason we want to work with people we are comfortable with is not just because we trust them, but because we are not allowing ourselves to connect and communicate with others. You can’t build trust without actually opening up to them yourself. As students we exist within the boundary of the school. This is our existing periphery; but if we wish to widen it, we need to trust people. One needs to strike effective and meaningful conversations with them. We need to ask questions, answer their questions, challenge them, feel challenged, work with them. Just like the two sides of a coin, with trust also comes its challenges. Taken together, we share the taste of success.
Let go of your ego for better outcomes
Collaborative problem- solving does lead to better outcomes. This goes by the principle called “Esprit De Corpse”- which means a team is all about “We”, not “I”. We learn from life that the more we work with people, the more we trust them, and the more you get to know them. When we work together closely, we allow our strengths and weaknesses to be exposed. We annihilate your ego. This might mean vulnerability in the world of business but it actually leads to effective learning outcomes. It takes collaboration across a community to develop better skills for better lives. Trust and collaboration go hand in hand. When you work with people, remarkable things happen.
The last word
A team is not a group of people working together; it is a group of people who trust each other. It needs time and effort to get created. When a baby eagle learns to fly, the mother eagle drops the child from her beak. The baby eagle trusts its mother to save him when he isn’t able to balance. This is a deep and innate sense of trust. Henry Ford aptly sums it up as follows: “Coming together is beginning, staying together is a progress, and working together is success.”
About the author
The article has been contributed by Ananya Vadehra, student of Mahaveer Senior Model School, New Delhi