Some days, especially when it’s cold and rainy outside, I opt out of listening to music when I work and look for a TED Talk to watch or listen to as a source of inspiration for the task at hand. Today, I chose a TED Talk from 2013 by Angela Ahrendts, Senior Vice President of Retail at Apple since 2014. Prior to Apple she worked for Burberry.
A quote from the talk made me stop, rewind and listen again. Twice.
Trust, since the creation of man, is where we all derive our greatest strength and power. It’s like the exterior heart that all energy flows through.
-Angela Ahrendts, 2013
This quote, this statement really struck a chord within me today. The quote was surrounded by a discussion about turmoil in the world at that time. That was 2013 and quite frankly, 2013 has nothing on where we are today in 2017. It all suddenly clicked in my head: I’ve lost trust in the world. I don’t trust our government, I certainly don’t trust the president, I don’t really trust corporations and I’m finding it more and more difficult to trust that people will do the right thing. Without trust we have nothing. As Ms. Ahrendts stated, it’s the exterior heart that all energy flows through. Without trust, there’s no heart, there’s no energy flowing.
One of the most important things about our marriage and our little family is that I have absolute, unwavering trust in both Earl and Jamie. It’s the very foundation upon which my life has been built. We have no secrets from one another and I don’t think I could function if that changed. There may be hesitation for someone to share something but I trust that I will never be deceived and I will never, ever do anything to lose their trust. It’s bedrock. It’s what allows us to stand tall.
If we are truly going to Make America Great Again, we need to start with putting people we trust into positions of leadership. We need to trust our leaders and more importantly, we need to trust one another. There’s not a lot of trust going on in society today.
Here’s the entire TED Talk called “The Power of Human Energy”. Angela Ahrendts is one woman I’d like to meet in person, shake her hand and thank her for the inspiration.
