• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS •

IF THERE ARE USEFUL takeaways in this short book, they have their origins in my upbringing. My parents trusted me long before I deserved their trust. They made it hard to let them down. I now see they knew what they were doing when teaching me to love the feeling of being trustworthy—as much as I hated letting them down.

Before long, parents of my friends allowed their kids to go places if I were along. That’s because, in the words of these parents, my presence was akin to “having a 40-year-old chaperone along.” While I surely hated this brand at the time, I now look back on it as a reflection of a mindset that has served me well throughout my adult life.

I’ve raised seven kids, believing in them before they might have been worthy of my trust. I was certain of their eventual trustworthiness, and even when they disappointed, I was confident of their ability to “figure it out” given enough time and support. Rarely have they disappointed me for long—and their love and worldviews have made be a better person.

In business, over the course of nearly 50 years, I’ve had more than 300 partners all over the world. Only a tiny handful have proven untrustworthy. Dealing with employees, suppliers, distributors, lenders, bankers, lawyers, doctors, and other teammates has been gratifying—even if not perfect. In most cases, trust builds trustworthiness, which further enhances trust and makes doing business more profitable, more efficient, and more pleasant. I’m grateful to all who have helped me strengthen a feedback loop I’ve always believed was the best way to do business and to live life.

I also want to thank the thousands of students I’ve taught over the past 23 years at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. They’re uniformly bright, idealistic, capable, and worthy of our hope, optimism—and trust. The world is in good hands with this next generation, which has taught me to believe we’re in better hands than some headlines might suggest.

While I’ve lived a life in which the fruits of trust have been abundant, I’ve also experienced betrayal, which has taught me a lot about trust, too—whom to trust, how far to trust them, and how to repair strained trust. I’m thankful for (not to) the scoundrels I’ve known and for having survived their worst and refined my approach to trust.

Many friends and colleagues were willing to read over my various drafts and musings. I appreciate all of it—and the book is better for it. Bob Whitman—my partner for three decades at Trammell Crow, on the board at FranklinCovey and as a co-founder of Whitman Peterson—has been a paragon of trust and trustworthiness. Stephen Covey wrote the foreword to this book and it’s an honor for me to have it; he has contributed to the power and speed of trust for a generation.

Charles O’Reilly, my colleague at Stanford with whom I’ve co-taught a leadership course for the past decade, has continually sharpened my thinking. And Rod Kramer, another Stanford colleague, who had already plowed the ground on the dynamics of organizational trust, was a superb reviewer of an early draft, taking time to provide both academic studies and real-life examples that bolstered this book. I’m grateful as well to Jeff Pfeffer at Stanford, with whom I disagree on many leadership topics but whose provocative approach I admire, without which I might never have written out my experiences with trust.

Peter Robinson, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, along with his business partner Joe Malchow, were willing to weigh in early on to encourage me to put words to paper and to refine them. Jim Hnat, our general counsel at JetBlue, was an early editor who forced me to hone my imprecise thinking. The comments of my lifelong friend, Randy Paul, were invaluable.

I’m grateful to Stephen S. Power at Amacom who had the idea in the first place and reached out to me to write a book on my approach to building high-trust enterprises. Were it not for him, this book would not exist.

Most of all, I must thank my wife Diana—the best partner one could have. She’s seen me through ups and downs, and has trusted me to find my bearings each time I lose them. She was a key partner in writing this book—both getting my ideas on paper and refining how to say them. Along those lines, I am grateful to David A. Kaplan, whose ability to write clearly, to find examples, and to push back on fuzzy thinking has been invaluable. His good humor and energy have never failed as we partnered to produce this book.

Finally, to all the many partners, colleagues, friends and business associates who have unfailingly gone the extra mile as fiduciaries, service providers and companion travelers, I owe a huge debt. As I’ve occasionally navigated bumpy and uncertain roads, I’ve been impressed that most people do their utmost to be worthy of our trust when granted it. I’m grateful to have concluded that living a life of high-trust relationships is a goal that’s achievable. And overcoming the occasional betrayal of trust is possible. That is the central message of this book.