We’ve been talking about the concept of ‘trust’ at work lately. We learned that ‘trust’ is the only thing that can change everything. At work, it’s all about internal trust between colleagues, as well as building a trusting relationship with our clients, however I think this concept can extend to any situation and have found that this is especially important for travellers.

A friend has just hopped on a plane to South American where she’ll be utilising the Couch Surfing community for accommodation. For those not familiar with Couch Surfing, it is a community of people from all around the world that open up their spare rooms for travellers to stay with, in exchange for new friendship and stories. It is a fantastic concept and has been around for a very long time, and I have, myself, both stayed with and hosted travellers from all over the world, and made some life long friends along the way.

So, I was chatting about this with another friend and he was surprised that anyone would be willing to do this. “But it’s so risky!” He said, “and how do you know they are not going to rub you and steal from you?”

To him, the concept of complete strangers having such ‘blind’ trust of each other is unthinkable, and something that he’ll never consider trying, because trust apparently doesn’t extend to strangers.

Personally, I’ve learned through my travels over the years that ‘trust’ is the basis of everything we do, and is the foundation of companionship everywhere. Travellers rely on trust everywhere they go, and to be honest, I’ve had more positive experience than bad when it comes to trusting my fellow travellers and locals alike.

Travel teaches us to trust. When we are in foreign lands speaking foreign languages, we have to trust to get ahead and have fun. Sure, there will be times when a small minority of people who will betray our trust, but most of the time, people are trustworthy, and more so when we are on the road.

I had previously written about kindness in strangers for Worldette. I am in the belief that every one of us in this world has kindness in our hearts, and the very little mis-trust that we have for each other are caused by the 1% of troublesome people that causes chaos.

Back to Couch Surfing. Why shouldn’t we be hospitable towards visitors to our countries? And if you think you are trustworthy, why shouldn’t anyone else be trustworthy? By extending this trust, by opening up our homes and by staying with the others, we are bringing the world closer together.

If we all just trust, stop listening and acting on the non-sense that 1% of the people say about everyone else (because, out of that 1%, many of them have never travelled, and taken the time to understand each other) – TRUST, is a concept that essentially can save the world.

And as travellers, it is our duty to spread this word! Not to mention – it’s so much more fun when the world is in a good place.