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04.22.09 Have You Built Up Trust In Your Company? 
By Danny Brown
On Christmas Day in 1990, British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee sent a communication between an HTTP client and receiving server. The result? The Internet as we know it (the world wide web) was born. Cue almost 30 years of innovation in the way we communicate and do business. Yet this isn't the full story. Two years earlier, in the small Russian town of Kondopaga, Vladimir Hrostov completed a successful test of the same technology that Berners-Lee used that lauded the introduction of today's web. The tools were a little more basic and the result was that the message took longer - but it was successful. Hrostov took his findings to the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, excited with the potential it had for communication. Unfortunately for Hrostov, this was at a time when the Cold War between the US and Russia was still very much prevalent. Although relations were thawing, there was still a lot of mistrust between the East and West. Accusations of spying were rife. The ruling Politburo of the old Russia didn't want to run the risk of this type of communication being picked up by the Americans, and promptly threw Hrostov in jail to keep him quiet. He remained there for 17 years. Jump forward two years and the point where Berners-Lee steps in. Credit for the breakthrough goes to the United Kingdom so neither Russia nor the US benefit. Ironic, no? It would be - were it true. But it's not - it's simply a tale I've made up to make a point. While you were reading this tale, you may have started checking Google for names and places. Some you'd find, others not. If you didn't check Google and have read to this point, now you know you don't need to check any facts. So why the fictional tale of Vladimir Hrostov and his (non-existent) part in the birth of the Internet?
People can tell you anything. If they've built a level of trust with you and haven't broken that trust, you'll be more inclined to believe what they say. Yet never take it as gospel. • If you're a business and a consultant tells you they can do X or Y for your company, do a little background checking on their claims. Speak to past clients for satisfaction levels (the consultant did give you a past client list, right?). • If you're an individual, remember there's no such thing as an anonymous Internet presence. Unless you'd happily say everything and anything you say online offline as well, rein it back in. • If you're a marketing or PR company looking to run a campaign, stick to the facts. You may get some early sales, but will they be worth the stickiness factor that could be attached to your name afterward when you're called out on false facts? The point is, up until I "confessed" about Hrostov, you may have believed what you were reading was true because over time I've (hopefully) built up your trust in me. If that's the case, I'm grateful that you feel I'm transparent enough to trust. But trust only goes so far. Your name, your reputation, your presence is all you have to separate you from everyone else. Truth is everything. Truth succeeds where the falsehood of fake sales fail. Are you always being truthful to yourself? Comments
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