The Trust Problem and Why Should Business Owners Care

Hey everyone, and welcome to another Fitlosophies Blog post! One day the podcast will return, but that day is not today, so I hope you're ready to read. Today, and truly every day, I'm angry. And if you're experiencing a similar life to mine, you probably are, too. Sometimes it's from small things, like stubbing my toe and becoming frustrated about that, and other times, it's much larger in scope, like the supreme court gutting voting rights laws. Readers be warned: this blog will contain some explicit language, and some very personal takes, that you may not agree with and/or don't want to engage with. If that is the case, feel free to check out other articles or just stop reading here and go enjoy the rest of your day/evening!

I've done a lot of introspection in my life, especially recently, and it's come to my attention that a lot of this anger stems from something in particular. And no, it's not the bad drivers on I-40 (although, let's be real, it also is the bad drivers on I-40). It's not actually something tangible. You see, I'm angry because my money is worthless. Your money is worthless. In fact, all of our money is worthless. And no, this isn't some schtick about currency being made up, and I'm not going to attempt to get you to purchase real currency, like a made-up memecoin. I mean that this sentiment holds merit when you look into what we, as consumers, expect to be purchasing, what value we actually receive, and how that value has fully diminished over time as more and more corporations and people look to continue extracting while expending the least amount of effort, energy, and capital possible, in aggregate. Think about it: outside of CHT (of course!), when was the last time you feel like you spent money that was fully worth it, where you purchased a product that came with great customer service, solved the problem you needed it to, and didn't require additional resources like: your private data, a brand new software account to register for, access to your email/phone number, a 1-hour phone call because the product/service wasn't working as intended, a warranty that expires in 12 months rather than the life of the product, an additional purchase because you didn't get the premium version despite the advertised service being what you bought, having to take your kid(s) to school because there aren't enough tax dollars to pay an adequate amount of bus drivers? See what I mean? In the fitness industry, this looks like most of the marketing you'll see on social media: people lifting obscene weights and touting the benefits of a specific supplement or piece of equipment to build that level of strength or aesthetics; harping on one style of exercise intervention to fully change one's life and outlook; citing one sentence from a research study on joint health to prove a specific point, in a specific instance, of one particular individual, and attempting to apply that to every single human that has ever existed. Like the examples above, these are a classic bait & switch, the ole rug pull, the attempt at earning money at any cost, including, but not limited to, being disingenuous about the efficacy of a product or service.

Upon this thought experiment, I realized that in my entire adult life, I haven't gone a single day without some level of fuckery from the systems of economics and governance. What has this brought me? Well, it's brought me incredible amounts of anger, but more than that, it's brought me a profound loss of trust in the social contracts that we all should agree to. It's brought me a lack of faith that my expectations should be met–and note, this particular thought is very important–not that my expectations can't be met, but that it's hard to believe that any expectations of value exchange will be followed by feelings of relief, or reinforcement that the decision to buy, purchase, or expend energy were fully worth it.

That last sentence is the crux of my writing today because it isn't just me that feels this way. I believe it to be a huge swath of people. Hell, I've even heard some of our clients expressing this regarding certain things in their life. I bring this up because it's been my mission since becoming the owner of CHT to combat this, in one way or another. I've argued in previous posts about this, but the mission of every business should be to solve a problem, NOT to create capital and build monetary value, at least not more than what is needed. I believe that is where we at CHT have excelled beyond any competitor, or most any other business if I allow myself to give into my more pompous notions. My foundation, both consumer facing and employee facing, has been trust. It's actually our number one priority this year: trust one another, trust our clients, and trust ourselves, to all show up, provide consistent service, support us when we need it, and hold each other accountable, because the world outside of these walls is in free fall, and we need somewhere to keep us grounded. That place is CHT. I hope it's felt that way to you, and I trust that it always will, if you trust me to lead with a few tenets that I hold, and believe business owners everywhere should take to heart, too:

• Perfection is unattainable, but progress is insatiable.

• Our main priority will always be on providing the best possible service that we can.

• I am secure when you are secure. You are secure when I am secure. Together, we are secure. (This is more employee focused, but it bodes well for clients/customers, too.)

• Clients/customers should always leave feeling better than when they stepped in. Maybe tired, but full, happy, and motivated.

• Money doesn't buy trust. Actions and meeting expectations buy trust. Money buys time, not effort or intent.

  
  

Now, here comes the hard part, the part that really frustrates me: this ideology is losing. Don't worry, it's not losing here at CHT–I mean it is losing in the greater context of American society. The desire and the need for trust and the social contract of transparency and accountability grows higher every day, and yet, we're burdened with the fact that not only is it waning, but the incentive for that trust, transparency, and accountability to diminish continues to grow. The amount of frustrating things that we encounter every day reduces the amount of energy we can put into solving the very problems that we are frustrated with, and at a certain point, the nihilism of my previous statement becomes louder: it's hard to believe that any expectations of value exchange will be followed by feelings of relief, or reinforcement that the decision to buy, purchase, or expend energy were fully worth it. So we're just left being angry because we're seeing so many problems get solved just enough to warrant capital expenditure, but not quite enough that it really makes our lives easier, or better, for having spent that capital. I wish I had better words of encouragement for improving upon this, but the truth is, I don't trust that society will get its shit together enough to make that happen.

And there's that word again: trust. What the hell does that even mean anymore when it feels like so much of the world around us has been eroded, and our faith in local businesses, or people, or community has diminished? I have no idea, but I do know a couple things, if you allow me to grandstand just a little bit longer. Big "if", I know. 

Without getting further into the very many economic, political, and sociological philosophies and impacts that I've already indirectly touted in this post, I'd like to put these last words towards the utilization of power. Power comes in many forms–social, economic, physical–and each of us holds some degree of it, whether we recognize it or not. Those of us with some levels of power need to begin challenging the status quo and rebuilding faith in the social contracts that are meant to bind us together. We've got to recognize where our power begins and where our power is being stripped, as well as the effects that our power actually has on those whom we influence. As business owners, that means we HAVE to find a way to uncouple ourselves from a strictly profit-driven approach to enterprise, and growth/capital collecting as a motive of its own sake. When making decisions, what are the primary factors in choosing a direction to go? We have tons of power that we wield over our employees, the communities we influence, and within the industries that we inhabit, whether we recognize it or not, and it's about time that the conscious ones among us took a much harder look at how we wield our economic influence to improve the lives of others around us.

So, I'm going to continue being angry, probably forever, honestly, but my goal is to continue working on ensuring that CHT is a reprieve from the absolute dumpster fire of garbage that has somehow become omnipresent in today's society, a place where the real world reflects the version of reality where we believe in each other again. If we can do that here, at CHT, then I remain hopeful that some level of that positivity, that optimism, that trust, can permeate other areas of our culture, our communities, and our society, too.