This truth reaches beyond relationships with one's peers. It touches client relationships, the users of your products. This is at the heart of how I run the Private Wealth team, which is effectively Sales for Swan. I tell every single member of our sales org during training: 1) Act like you work for the client, not me. Do what is in their best interest always 2) You build trust by revealing yourself. You can't just stick to the social script. You need to, tactfully, deviate and reveal yourself (interests, passions, real views on the world) 3) By doing this you not only put clients at ease because they are dealing with an actual human being not a sales person, but you open up a space for the client to reveal themselves as well. 4) Authenticity and Trust form the core pillars of our relationship with our clients, and should be the case for any business or entrepreneur 5) I give the example of Nietzsche's saying 'All strength is an excess of strength'. This means that Nietzsche believed true strength could only be known via excess, by doing things you didn't need to do. It's the same in sales, client relationships, and business. It is by taking a risk and doing something which gives you absolutely no competitive advantage, that you actually build trust. You need to do something which may run the risk of actually being bad for you (risking judgement, negative reaction i.e- why is this guy telling me his thoughts on Nietzsche) It's human relationship all of the way down. View quoted note →