Ways to distinguish yourself – #3 Build strong relationships

What is one thing that takes a long time to build but can be destroyed in no time?

There are many answers to the above question. My favorite answer is Trust.
Trust is the bedrock of solid relationships. As you would have
observed, it takes a while for you to trust someone 100%. For almost
the same reasons, there is no overnight solution for
building strong relationships. It just take a long time of sustained
efforts where each party is cautiously building trust one step at a
time.

In my opinion, there are only two types of relationships (1) long
term and (2) very long term. Rest are casual transactions. Very long
term relationships provide an unfair advantage but not without an
investment (long term explains it all.)

Relationships will sustain only when there is mutual value addition.
One sided relationships will end sooner or later. Why is this
important? Here is one reason: Our tendency would be to go and find
people that are more powerful than us and try and build a long term
relationship with them. The value to us from such relationships is
clear and direct. The key questions are: What about the reciprocal
value to the other party? What’s in it for them (WIIFT) in this
relationship?

One trap that most of us fall into is entitlement. Relationships don’t happen by entitlement or hierarchy or position. It happens by design of healthy value exchange. There are no accidents here..