“Trust dies but mistrust blossoms.” - Sophocles

The “road” to trust would include reliability, openness, authenticity, and being able to deliver, or R.O.A.D.  Why is trust so important?  Trust is our defence against fraud.  In an age filled with cybercrime, trust becomes our protection from pain and suffering.  Trust is also about our real connections to people.  Without trust the relationship connection resembles fantasy rather than reality.

Reliability
When we are consistent and dependable, we are reliable.  Being unreliable over time is a game changer.  Whether this happens at work, at play, or at home. 

When you are not able to depend on someone your trust starts to wane.  Your actions cannot be counted upon.  Others will lose confidence in you at first, and then lose trust.  A 75% reliability means I cannot depend on you 25% of the time⁽¹⁾.

“The only thing that permits human beings to collaborate with one another in a truly open-ended way is their willingness to have their beliefs modified by new facts. Only openness to evidence and argument will secure a common world for us.” – Sam Harris

Openness
Transparency is about making situations easier to understand.  Openness is more about being honest and not hiding any information or feelings and being able to think about, accept or listen to different ideas⁽²⁾.

Openness leads to trust.  Honesty with good listening skills builds confidence in the open person.  The acceptance of alternative perceptions also builds trust. 

We can still agree to disagree but I trust and respect your opinion even though it may not be congruent with mine.  We each felt heard and that solidifies our trust in each other.

 “We need to find the courage to say no to the things and people that are not serving us if we want to rediscover ourselves and live our lives with authenticity.” Barbara De Angelis

Authenticity
Being authentic means being one’s "whole self" avoiding a pseudo identity to please others.  It also involves speaking one’s mind despite what others may think or feel is popular.  The authentic person takes responsibility for their actions and does not need to blame.  The ability to follow through with things they say is also salient.  

Delivering
Keeping your word builds trust.  When we deliver on our promises we inflate our credibility.  When we fall short of delivering trust begins to erode.

Others Trust
We usually think of trust in terms of building trust either from others or to others.  I want to be sure I can trust you and I want to be sure you can trust me.  However, there is another third type of trust, which may be the most significant.

Who Do You Trust?
Before Johnny Carson started on the late show in 1962, he was the host of a TV show called “Who Do You Trust?” from 1957-1962.  This show was interesting in that Johnny would ask a couple a question and then follow with the statement: Who Do You Trust? 

The partners would look at one another and then decide whether to trust their partner to answer or trust themselves to answer.  This opens the door to our third type of trust, self-trust.

“A mind that trusts itself is light on its feet.”- Nathaniel Branden 

Self-Trust
How important is self-trust?  How will you make decisions if you are lacking self-trust?  You would be indecisive and probably procrastinate more often.  Each time this occurs you would also be reinforcing the belief that you cannot trust yourself.

Not being able to trust yourself can lead to many of the mental health issues that you do not want.  It may fuel anxiety because you are unsure of more situations due to your lack confidence in yourself.   

Lack of self-trust may lead to depression due to your increased isolation because you are not trusting yourself in the world.  Intrusive thoughts may also become more prominent because your lack of self-trust increases your fears.

Elevating your self-trust will boost your confidence and your resilience.  You will be less likely to fall into negative thoughts and feelings.

Like all personal characteristics, your self-trust needs to be accurate.  The people who designed human wings to fly off the Eiffel Tower years ago had an inordinate amount of self-trust that turned out to be catastrophic.  It just didn’t fly! 

References

^{1-Bader, E. (2025). Reliability and Trust. Couples Institute.}

^{2-Hung, C.A. (2020). OPENNESS VS TRANSPARENCY. Scrum Guide}