The joy of being trusted for what you do

First year on the job at a totally different industry to where I used to work, I was to take care of a handful of customers handed over from someone who has close to 3 decades of experience in the company.

Can you imagine?
I was anxious yes, but I am quite sure the customers were just as anxious or even more. A foreigner working for quite the conservative customer base in Japan added some challenges as well.

I still remember picking up the first call, after maybe a month or two since my first day. It was a query on a migration to a new tool that impacts all the customers. They were deeply concerned since this can impact their daily operations.

Starting with an empty jar of trust pebbles, or I might even say quite some doubt pebbles in.

Although I had no idea, the worry in the customer’s voice had really propelled me to learn fast in order to do help. Delivering help where needed direly, there is only a few things that can beat the pleasure of doing that.

Afterwards, it was a repetition of something similar to above.

2.5 years past, the jar with that customer and fortunately some more customers are full of trust pebbles.

The trust we have is now quite palpable.

These days when the phone rings, or the email hits I have more curiosity than anxiety. Fortunately often times it is something that I can help with. This act of helping, is not merely getting things done for the paycheck. It brings me much joy and a feeling of personal significance.

In addition to just feeling good, it has contributed to positive feedback cycle. During just 2 years the list of customers I was responsible for grew to 20+ and expanded in 4 different countries over the globe.

Being trusted for what you do, it is something worth aiming for. No matter what you do.