Senator Joe Manchin (D-WVA) shook the news, the public, Congress and President Biden when he said on a cable TV show that he would not vote for the social initiative and giant climate change proposed by the president. Reacting angrily to what he saw as a broken promise, Biden asked Jen Psaki, his press secretary, to release this official White House statement:

“Senator Manchin has made a commitment to the President at his home in Wilmington to support the Build Back Better framework that the President then announced. Senator Manchin has repeatedly undertaken to negotiate the finalization of this framework “in good faith”.

Compare Biden’s reaction to that of employees at Gravity Payments, a Seattle-based credit card payment processor, who gave their boss a new Tesla because he preserved his promise. Six years ago, Dan Price, CEO and founder of the company, decided to double the company’s minimum wage to $ 70,000 from $ 35,000, and to account for the difference, cut his own salary. of $ 1 million.

True, there is a big difference between political ethics and business ethics, but in all areas, promises kept pay off. Not only did Gravity employees give Price the nice gift, but they also performed so well that the company tripled its payment processing volume.

In 2017, Foxconn, the Taiwanese electronics giant, announced plans to build a giant 20 million square foot manufacturing plant in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, which would employ 5,200 people by 2020 and grow to 13,000 beyond. They ended up with a 1 / 20th scale building and only hired 281 people. Residents of Mount Pleasant, whose homes were bulldozed for the proposed plant, are now furious, not only with Foxconn, but also with local government officials and former Gov. Scott Walker who championed the project. As the Guardian reports, “the project is now seen as a loss to Republicans” – in a state of swing.

Blinkit, an online grocery delivery service in India, made a promise it realized it couldn’t keep and acted on. Last August, to better compete with Amazon, BigBasket, and newcomer JioMart, where speed of execution is key, Blinkit announced 10-minute deliveries. But that delay turned out to be a challenge, so they suspended service to customers in areas where they couldn’t meet that commitment. The suspension of 75,000 customers in 12 cities had a significant impact on the company’s bottom line, but this is only temporary: they open a new store every four hours and expect to return to high gear in the next hour. a month.

Blinkit’s franchise builds confidence in the brand. Trust in the brand creates business. Forbes Contributor Ernan Roman cited a Reader’s Digest US Trusted Brands survey which found that:

“79% of respondents said they go with a ‘trusted’ brand when choosing between items of equal quality and price. “

Romain concludes:

“trust cannot be assumed or bought. It is necessary [be]won by actions.“

The main thing is to go ahead and make all the promises you want, but make them real and, if you can’t keep or deliver on them, say so. Take responsability. Build trust with the truth.

Promises made must be promises kept.