“Trust, once
lost, could not be easily found. Not in a year, perhaps not even in a
lifetime.”
-J.E.B Spredemann
Trust is complicated;
once it is broken it is hard to recover.
Thankfully in life there are people who are Trust Restorers. These are the people who work and wait (and
wait and wait and wait) to earn the trust of those whose faith is lost. One of my favorite Trust Restorer stories
comes from Love What Matters:
I read this story
over and over. How easy it would have
been for the mom to respond a different way.
The rebuilding of trust is hard work.
She chose the long road. The road
that leads to transformation.
This past week I met
a group of Trust Restorers…. at the auto dealership. Ohhh the irony. First, to catch you up to speed, let’s just
say that my last experience at a dealership was less than ideal (it was
horrible). I’ve needed a new car for quite some time, but kept putting it
off. Finally, I decided to look
online. Within seconds I found a great
car. It had everything I wanted (and
more) and was within my budget. I went
to the dealer for a test drive fully expecting:
1. for it to be not
as advertised
2. for them to bully
me
3. for them to scam
me
Well, it was as advertised. In fact, it was even more wonderful. I tell the dealer I’m interested in
purchasing the vehicle. As he’s talking me
through the buying process I begin to melt down. He notices.
Before I know it I’m spilling my whole story in the middle of the
dealership. He stops me and says “I’m
sorry that happened to you. I want you
to trust me. I need you to trust me so
you can recommend me to others.” He gets
up and comes back with a stack of papers.
For the next hour he walks me through every charge and every line of the
contract. There is nothing hidden. The
contract is completely transparent.
Then they send me to
manager to sign all the finance papers and of course I begin to melt down. The manager notices. And once again I’m spilling my story. He stops me and says “What happened to you
was illegal. That is not okay.” Then he breaks down the price of the vehicle
piece by piece. He gives me a calculator
and lets me calculate every charge over and over again until I was comfortable. This whole thing took hours. Not once did I feel pressured to hurry up or
to agree to anything I didn’t understand.
They choose the long road for me, someone they will forget about in a
few weeks’ time.
Almost a week later
and I am still in shock. I keep waiting
for the other shoe to drop. (Hopefully
the family mechanic will give it a clean bill of health on Thursday!)
