Chanakya Strategy Coach
Trust
Day 20
Loyalty and Betrayal
Chanakya didn't believe trust was ever permanent — he treated it as something you keep re-checking. You should give people more trust and higher stakes only as they prove themselves reliable, step by step. The mistake is trusting someone fully before they've earned it, or refusing to trust anyone at all because there's always some risk. Both extremes leave you worse off.
Reflection
Is there a relationship where you have extended trust far beyond what the track record justifies? What is keeping you from adjusting your position?
Today's Practice
List three people whose trustworthiness is most important to your current work. For each, list the specific evidence (not the feeling) that supports or undermines your assessment.
Arthashastra 1.13