Whoa…that hit home. I opened the door to my hotel room and there on the front page of USA Today was “Mortgage Crisis Seeps to Prime Loans.” Now that’s a great way to start the day….NOT. Is it any wonder as to why I almost NEVER watch the news? Not that I have my head in the sand, I just don’t need to be focusing TOO much on sensationalism. Do I need to pay enough attention to develop strategy scenarios based upon certain news events? Sure, absolutely. Do I need to know about current events? Some, but seriously, what does 99% of it matter? Not too much. I have to ask myself, how much do I want to let this influence me? Does this really effect me…I mean really?

Ok, focus on something I can control….me.

Seriously, in somewhat of a liberal sense, this headline does relate to my original subject of this message. As you might know, I’ve been at a Speed of Trust workshop this week. I’m not sure what I expected, but I had not considered the direct and personal impact; almost gut wrenching. I had assumed that because I’d been reading the book and practicing and talking about the 13 Behaviors for almost a year, that there would not be any big AHAs. Wrong. I’ve had to remember that “I choose to be frustrated or not.” Errrrrr.

This morning I’ve been pondering and praying about what has struck me the hardest (and there has been quite a bit; what is my biggest aha? What was the WOW or WHOA? Well, there have been many, but it was something said in the first 15 minutes that has kept coming back to me – “you are probably not going to learn anything new this week. Everything we are teaching is common sense, just not common practice.”

Hmmm. Not sure that I'm in 100% agreement, but it all hits close enough that the fallout is causing some damage. There are many familiarities in the book to other aspects of what we've been learning over the years. For instance, Behavior #10: Practice Accountability. Now that sounds familiar. Or #3: Create Transparency, #2: Demonstrate Respect.

Two “reallys!!!” I’ve had were the whole “branding” aspect and the “trust taxes vs trust dividends.”

We’ll be talking a great deal in the coming weeks about branding.

As to trust vs dividends, but for now think about how Mr. Covey teaches that when trust goes down, speed goes down, and expenses (costs) go up, thus, less profit; expense = trust = >speed = profit

Another recurring part of this Speed of Trust thing is how it starts with “Self-Trust.” (Dang, why can’t I read a book or take a seminar about fixing others??).

How does the newspaper headline relate? The “I’ll be the same 5 years from now…..” theme is resonating, if not pounding away, at me. We can’t control the headlines but we can control whether we read them or not and what we do with them. If I want to be different 5 weeks or 5 years from now, and I do, I have to change; I need to trust myself more, and I then need to trust others more. I need to have a “propensity towards Trust.

Hopefully, you have all been reading the book. I trust you have.

Can you share some examples of trust dividends? I’d love to hear about them.


P.R.O.V.I.D.E. Leadership,


Danny