What Klaus Schwab teaches us about Trust

Feeling matters as much as ideas

If I had to point out one person who, globally, appears to invoke colossal trust issues in the average human, then that person would be Klaus Schwab.

Head of the World Economic Forum (WEF), Schwab has big connections and big plans for humanity about which he is actually fairly transparent. Not for him the back-room manipulations of his fellow contender for least-trusted individual, George Soros.

No, Schwab puts it out. He wants to see a “Great Reset” of the global financial system. He wants to see Stakeholder Capitalism take over from the current version, which maximizes shareholder return. He wants to protect the world from the negative effects of climate change.

And, yet, despite his apparent honesty, Schwab is the butt of conspiracy theories to a degree that makes Bill Gates look like the average guy in Walmart. People in all continents are utterly enraged by him, to such a level that they don’t even stop to consider that, underneath it all, is a lack of trust. They just rage about him.

For this reason, being a therapist, I find Schwab intriguing. He doesn’t seem to be hiding much but people just don’t trust him. Is it because of his heavy German presence that creates immediate comparisons with a Bond bad-guy? Is it because of the lack of accountability that the WEF, finally just one lobbying organisation of thousands, has?

I don’t think so.

If Schwab was to ring me up one day and say, “Devaraj, no one trusts me! Tell me, what can I do to get people to trust me?” in his thick German accent, what would I say?

That is actually easy. I would tell him what I learned doing years of social therapy decades ago…

“Klaus, you need to show yourself more. Everywhere you appear, you have total control. In your conferences. In your forum. In your business meetings. Never do you let the control slip. And for this reason, the average person will not trust you. For these guys to trust you, Klaus, they need to feel you. Yes, feel. I know it is an odd concept to you. But it is very important. You have huge plans which will affect everyone on the planet. And with your super-logical, German mind, you think it is enough just to tell people your plan. But it is not enough, Klaus. For them to trust you, and believe that you are a good guy, and that your plan is coming from a good place, you also need to show your essential human-ness. This cannot happen when you only appear in places where you have total control.”

“Consider Mark Zuckerberg, Klaus. Like you, for many years he has been the butt of vast numbers of conspiracy theories. What did he do last year? He went on the Joe Rogan show, the biggest podcast on the planet. For three hours, Mark was not in control. He just rapped with Joe and chatted about his life, his working day, his hopes, ambitions, relationships. Since then, people trust him more. There is much that you could learn from this, Klaus. You must go on Joe Rogan, or something similar. You must allow yourself to just be in the moment, unscripted, and human. That’s to say, not in control.”

[long silent pause on the phone]

Simply having a good idea is not enough if it will affect other people a lot. They need to also feel you as simply another human being, like them. This is what engenders trust. This can only come from allowing yourself to be in situations where you don’t have control. Situations where you must be spontaneous, where you must reveal your inner world unscripted. You can’t fake this. People spot it if you try. And if they don’t trust you, they will push back against you, by whatever means. It won’t be fair but you are also responsible for their reactions.

When you allow your spontaneous self to be seen and felt, people trust you more.