How - Dov Seidman [97]
TRUST
Understanding that the conditions of the world have changed in such a dramatic, and specific, way that trust has become the currency of the age, more powerful than ever, is perhaps the most crucial HOW of our connected world. Every day, the newly horizontal structure of business puts us into relationships less rigidly defined by hierarchical structures. These relationships, to be productive and Wave-producing, require us to focus more intently than ever before on what fills the spaces between us.
Trust powers a new TRIP, down a new path, a path that is more reliable, more generative, and more able to help you achieve long-term, sustained success than the dodgy dance of the past. Increasingly, those who engender and extend trust, who become actively transparent, who maintain their integrity in the face of countervailing forces, and who fill the Gaps and synapses around them with trust will see that trust returned to them, propelling their new TRIP toward progress.
CHAPTER 9
Reputation, Reputation, Reputation
Reputation, reputation, reputation!
O, I have lost my reputation!
I have lost the immortal part of myself,
and what remains is bestial.
My reputation, Iago, my reputation!
—William Shakespeare, Othello, II, iii
On a traffic-free walking street in the Belgian city of Antwerp, a man pulls his long black coat more tightly around him to keep out the cold chill of the winter wind that blasts off the cobble-stone street like a wave cracking against the rocks. As the wind gusts again, he quickly grabs his black hat to steady it on his head, and ducks into the doorway of a large building. Entering a long highceilinged room, he loosens his coat to free his long graying beard as he walks swiftly past the two dozen or so plain wooden tables that line the high-windowed wall. “I must hurry,” he thinks to himself, “or I will not be home by sundown.”
It is Friday, and for observant Jews, the Sabbath begins at dusk.
At a table near the back, he greets another man, dressed in a white shirt and black vest, and quickly takes a seat across the others. The hubbub of others, sitting at other tables, engaging in quiet conversation, fills the room.
The wife? Der kinder? They keep the small talk to a minimum as they begin an animated discussion conducted in a mix of Yiddish and English. They both know it is getting late. The vested man opens a thin black leather pouch and produces a small paper envelope no bigger than a postcard. Slipping off his coat, the visitor opens the envelope and extracts the folded piece of white tissue paper. He carefully unfolds it on the table, and then reaches into his pocket to get his ever-present loupe. Squinting through the small magnifying glass, he examines the envelope’s precious contents: diamonds, one of the world’s most valuable commodities.
The conversation continues unbroken as the visitor picks through the dozen stones, each worth more than $20,000, wholesale. With an expert eye that comes from a lifetime of training, he chooses eight. The vested man names a price. The visitor considers it for a moment, determines it fair, and then hands the vested man a small, handwritten piece of paper with an address on it. The vested man places six of the precious stones into an envelope with the address and puts both envelopes back in his pouch. The two remaining stones he twists into a tissue and hands to the buyer, who puts them in his pocket. To seal the deal, the men look each other in the eye, shake hands, and exchange the traditional final words of a deal between diamond traders, mazel und brucha, luck and blessing. With the stones in his pocket and the instruction given, the buyer bundles up and heads home for Sabbath supper.
On the next Monday, the seller will ship the six stones in the envelope to the address