Be Transformed with The Catalyst: Choosing a Mentor Based on Trust & Loyalty

“Trust is a feeling, a distinctly human experience. Simply doing everything that you promise you’re going to do does not mean people will trust you. It just means you’re reliable. And we all have friends who are total screw-ups and yet, we still trust them.” This is a strong message from Simon Sinek‘s 2015’s TedTalk on how to build trust in an ever-changing environment. 

I am very big on trust and loyalty. I have also realised that a lot of successful people want loyal and trustworthy people closer to them, and they equally invest so much in loyalty and trust.

True leaders ensure that they create an environment where trust and cooperation can thrive. They believe that a gathering of trustworthy people will make cooperation and teamwork easier. This, in turn, will increase performance and productivity. 

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When choosing a mentor, leader, coach, and teacher, it’s important to pay attention to people who have and show the capacity to help you grow and people you believe you can trust. Just as successful leaders love to surround themselves with trustworthy people, people looking up to them must also watch out for honesty and trustworthiness.

People often make the mistake of following the wrong leaders in the pursuit of their goals. They fail to understand that the appearance of material things or wealth is not evidence of internal values and principles. You shouldn’t be enticed by the appearance of a successful person, rather, you should have a total examination of their character. We’re humans and we don’t write what lies inside us on our foreheads. So while choosing someone as a mentor, you should also be careful about the kind of person they are, character-wise. Imagine putting your total trust in a mentor or leader who then uses your trust and loyalty against you. That would be hurtful. A good leader always wants success for their followers and mentees, watch out for past and current mentees and see how well they are faring.

As humans, we need to observe and audit the kind of people we keep around, especially family and friends, because they hold the highest influence. It takes courage to follow principles because it requires sacrifice and determination, and if you don’t have the right people around you, they will keep dragging you down. On the flip side, when you have positive and trustworthy people around, it makes it easy to climb your ladder to success.