Charles Blondin, the French tightrope walker is famous for many acrobatic acts of daring. He is perhaps most famous for crossing the Niagara gorge over 300 times. And, on occasion, doing so with some amazing props, including a wheelbarrow, and actually making an omelette halfway across. Probably most famous, though, is his act of carrying a man across the gorge.
This is an incredible act of daring and risk taking, but also shows an amazing amount of faith and belief in himself and his ability to complete the task. Whilst we may suppose that one of his acts of daring may have been his downfall, he actually survived well into his 60’s and was still wowing the crowds until complications following diabetes took him.
What interests me most is not his complete faith and belief in himself, but how he was able to convince somebody else to jump on his back and be carried across a gorge of over 1100 ft with a raging torrent below.
I wonder how much belief, faith and trust I would need to have in somebody for me to jump on their back and be carried across a gorge on a tightrope!!
Of course, there has to be a message here for us today…
What is it that makes us believe and trust in ourselves to do what we need to do to fulfil our vision? At what point do we choose to seek the support of another, and at what point do we have an unwavering faith in that person to be able to help and support us to get to where we want to be in life and business – in the same way that the man who was carried across Niagara Falls had faith in Charles Blondin.
Trust is having faith in the integrity of others.
We are all aware of the concept of Know, Like and Trust (I’ve written about it here). I believe that trust comes not just from us consistently demonstrating our trustworthiness, but at a higher and even more profound level, it comes from integrity.
We build trust by interacting with others and our trustworthiness relies on how others see us, so trust is based on the perspective of others. I wonder why then are we so fixated on building trust with others when instead we should be focused on integrity (faith in trusting ourselves).
Integrity is different because it does not rely on others, it is fundamental to our very being and is about what we are. Trust can be built; integrity is something we have (or don’t have).
Does your desire to grow your business come from a commercially driven series of activities designed to build trust and convert prospects into clients, or does your desire to grow yourself and your business come from your profound faith and belief in your integrity.
For me, integrity is not about who we are, what we’ve done, our achievements or accolades, but what we are.
Relevant Reading:
Check out the “Know, Like and Trust – what does it really mean” article
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Remember, there are only three types of people – those who make things happen, those who wait for things to happen, and those who talk about why things don’t happen for them. Which one are you?
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