You are a great person. You trust other people because you think everyone works the same way that you do.
You might not want to believe this, but not everyone sees the world the same way you do.
No one out there is going to care more about your project, your product, your dream, than you. People may join you in trying to achieve your goal, but the promises they make might not be what they deliver.
What you see and what they see is different. Even if the difference is as small as a grain of salt.
When people make promises to you, take the time to calculate in the difference between what your view is and the view of the person making the offer. Understand that, they might not be deceptive on purpose, but they are not going to deliver what they tell you they will.
Granted, there are a vast number of liars, cheats, and criminals out there, however, the general populace is not dishonest. They just have a much different outlook than you.
Imagine that you are The Big Boss. You stand in front of a huge auditorium of your employees. You froth and slam your fist and churn up that loyal fervor in your company and you ask them all to put in 110%. They all jump and applaud because they believe in you as a leader; after all, you are a great leader. They vow with every ounce that they are, that they will give 110%.
They are all a twitter with excitement as they rush back to their work stations. Loyalty and pride oozes out of every pore. And in their heads they are churning out 113%. They threw in a little extra just in case they miscalculated. They are pouring everything they have, then going back to the well and sucking out any remaining drop.
And as you sit in your humble office, you look over the numbers for the past quarter. You think, “Hmm, I asked for 110% and they only gave me 82%. I wonder what I did wrong.”
The answer is, nothing. The only mistake you made is that you forgot to factor in the grain of salt.
You are damn good at everything you do. The trouble is, when you do make a mistake, it hits you like a bomb.
Everyone makes mistakes. You will make mistakes. Here is a secret: it is not the end of the world. So far, in the history of man, no one has made a mistake so large that is has caused the end of civilization.
Some have come close. But no one has made a mistake that has been that devastating yet.
They key is to learn from any mistake that you do make. That is how success is built. You can learn from the mistakes of others, but when it is your blunder, the lesson is really driven home.
