Building Trust Is about Delivering Certainty

The secret to gaining credit is making others (believe they) have leverage over you. It's the ancient equivalent of a blood oath and the modern equivalent of a contract: breach of contract must carry a cost, and you must publicize that cost to shape expectations of reputational damage. None of these elements can be missing.

If you compare the two Triangles with the northern interior, their deepest instincts around contract breaches are worlds apart—and so are their development trajectories. Capital in the south simply refuses to flow north, and trust is at the heart of that reluctance.