Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
How trusting are you of a newcomer? Do you expect a new project partner or colleague to prove their worth to you, or do you trust them until given a reason not to?
These two opposite choices are provided to us daily and based on which we select or how we approach the potential outcome is determined.
If we require proof before trust, then we can be limiting the potential possibility, as the person in front of us may react the same, just as suspecting, and will only put so much effort until they receive their own proof.
Yet this will also reduce the possibility of harm or foul, as we’ve got our eyes wide open and won’t proceed much until we see good progress, a willing partner, and thus avoid peril or harm.
Or should we go in trusting, believing, and hoping for positivity, providing the other the benefit of the doubt, looking to collaborate with full power from the get-go in order to grow faster, stronger, and better?
Yet on the other hand this also puts us in harm’s way if the other is not what’s expected, and we’ve opened too much, said too much, and have made ourselves vulnerable.
Depending on your background, your life experience, and the movies you’ve watched throughout your life, you will likely lean one way over the other. You may also have gained enough experience, and plenty of wins and fails to find a median way to go about a new relationship or collaboration, as to hopefully gained as much potential without leaving yourself completely susceptible to wrongdoing.
But trusting before the proof is a statement on its own; it sets up a common and peaceful ground to start from which also provides hope, camaraderie, and encouragement to a willing participant – and a more positive foundation to build upon.
Yes, such an outlook may end up with a few broken hearts, and some painful outcomes, yet in my experience, it ended up with greater relationships and results that wouldn’t have taken place should I not have been open to trusting from the beginning.