Breaking Trust

Someone very close to me recently did something that violated the trust I had in them and put an almost fourteen year relationship in grave jeopardy.

In the overall scheme of things, the actual act – petty theft in legal terms – was not an earth-shaking crime. What is so bad is that they crossed a line I never thought they would cross.

And it's shaken me.

It's made me question how many other times it's happened, and how many other things they've done that I never thought they would do. It's changed how I feel about them and it's changed how I treat them...and how they treat me. And knowing myself as I do, I'm pretty sure this incident will color my relationship with this person for the rest of both our lives.

And the funny thing is that when I look at the situation dispassionately (which took me quite some bit of time to be able to do), the fact that it happened is not all that shocking. I knew they had a tendency to take things, but it had always been little things and for some reason which now completely eludes me (and which would probably seem ludicrously illogical if I ever do remember it), I left the stolen item easily accessible, despite my awareness of their problem.

Some of it was laziness. I didn't want to have to unlock and re-lock the file cabinet each time I needed to access this thing.

Some of it was that I simply wanted to believe the best about this person - something I'm not sure I'll ever want to do again.

And some of it, I suppose was just plain stupidity – ignoring the facts that were right in front of me.  Something I'm not usually prone to do.

I suppose by this point most of you are wondering just what purpose, other than allowing me to vent, this little story could possibly serve you, a business professional.

Well here it is. Any security officer will tell you that most thefts, most information leaks, and most security breaches are crimes of opportunity. The thief is given an easy, ready opportunity to commit the crime.

Many times, these individuals see the opportunity early, but resist the temptation a number of times before they give in. The simple act of finding the cabinet locked, the door shut, the papers filed away or the password activated on the screen saver is enough to stop them.

So, I suppose the point of today's blog is this: take the time to safeguard your “stuff”. It can save you time, money, aggravation and maybe most importantly, it can help others be their “better selves”.

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I'd love to hear what you think. Feel free to leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.