Friendship and trust

One of the parameters that characterizes us in our personal as well as professional lives is who we trust, and on what basis. Even those who are gifted and who are of strong character are destroyed by misplacing their trust in the wrong person and/or for the wrong reasons. Those who do not trust others at all find it hard to cooperate with others and work in a team.

Trustfulness is the trait of believing in the honesty and reliability of others. To be trustful is to believe, in one extreme, that unless one proves otherwise, he/she is trustworthy. Success in business depends on one's trustworthiness, but also on trustfulness.

Friendship is an easily used but seldom understood word. A 'friend' is someone whom you can trust. Today, people have hundreds of 'friends', and there are many more avenues to meet people and become 'friends' with them. Can all these 'friends' be trusted? One approach that people take in business is to have a beverage/meal with someone. In some cases, that is all it takes to initiate a 'friendship' and create a certain amount of trust, and they take decisions that they would not otherwise take based on purely professional reasons. Relationships must be based on trustworthiness and not on camaraderie.

Friendship and enmity are 2 sides of the same coin. Where one exists, the other also exists. One who has friends has foes also. Sometimes, people who have common enemies become 'friends'. Both friendship and enmity are barriers to equanimity.