The wise man trust in himself,
not in other people.
People want to believe that other people have integrity and that their word actually means something. They want to believe that when someone says that they she loves them and will be there forever, that she can actually be believed. They want to believe that there is a least one person, one relationship that they can trust fully, which is beyond betrayal. But there isn’t.
Brian Tracy wrote, “Trust is based on integrity.” While that is true, think about how few people truly value or have integrity or honor. And, what’s more, out of the extremely low number of people who do value integrity and honor, how many of them are willing to honor their commitment, their word, or their honor when they had rather not do so or when there is nothing in it for them? Damn few!
If there is one piece of wisdom that I have found to be completely true, it is to never completely trust anyone. Of course, there are some people out there like me – people who, when they give their word to someone, when they make a commitment to someone, they refuse to break it, come hell or high water. But I have found that people like that are the rarest people on this planet.
Time and time again, I have found that people will do whatever they feel like doing in the moment, with little regard to what they have promised or what they have committed to doing. If you are counting on someone to honor their commitment in the long term, I personally think you would be better off picking a number on a roulette wheel. Where the hell has honor and integrity gone? What happened to commitment or unconditional love in our world?
Most people today seem to have the attitude of Eric “Otter” Stratton from Animal House – “You fucked up; you trusted us.” They couldn’t care less about their word or their commitment. Honor and integrity are nothing more than outdated social etiquette to them. They change their mind every time the wind changes directions. People like this can only be trusted as long as there is something in it for them; their commitments and keeping their word is never considered.
The best advice I can give to anyone living in today’s world is to not trust anyone completely, unless you are fully prepared to be ripped off, conned, or heart-broken. The wise man trust in himself, not in other people.
