The Trust Factor
A daily lesson that focuses on achieving unparalleled success in life using ancient wisdom in modern times.
We will be discussing critical concepts as they are laid out in the book Sha'ar Habitachon - The Gate of Trust. Written 1000 years ago, the author reminds us of the values and wisdom that have allowed humanity to thrive throughout history.
The concept of trusting in a higher power that exists purely for our benefit, puts us in the drivers seat with absolute confidence to achieve greatness.
Eliminate: Fear, Hatred, Anxiety, Depression, Jealousy, Greed...forever!
* Note that some terminology will be in the original Hebrew or Aramaic which I will always follow with the English translation.
The Trust Factor
Episode 134 - Corporate Success vs. Spiritual Truth: Redefining What Really Matters
What if everything society has taught you about success is fundamentally flawed? The Trust Factor podcast challenges conventional wisdom with a profound spiritual truth: God values your effort over your outcome.
While corporate culture demands results at any cost—promoting those who succeed regardless of how they got there—divine judgment operates on a completely different principle. Success or failure isn't what matters in God's eyes; what counts is your mindset and the genuine effort you make. This perspective liberates us from the crushing pressure of perfectionism and the despair that follows when our best efforts don't yield expected results.
Through a revealing personal story about a "cold calling cowboy" whose success was secretly engineered by his bank manager mother, we see how society creates unrealistic expectations. When we fail to match outcomes achieved by others who had hidden advantages, we blame ourselves unnecessarily. The spiritual alternative offers compassion: sincere effort with right intention receives divine reward, regardless of outcome.
This principle extends to negative actions as well. When circumstances beyond our control prevent us from completing harmful acts we've contemplated, divine judgment gives us the benefit of the doubt. This reveals God's loving nature—not seeking to punish but to provide opportunities for growth and transformation.
As Rosh Hashanah approaches, we enter a special period where spiritual barriers are lowered, making it easier to connect with the divine and initiate meaningful change. Even small steps receive amplified divine assistance during this time. Ready to experience the freedom that comes from knowing your sincere efforts matter more than perfect outcomes? Take that first step and discover what happens when you embrace divine rather than secular measures of success.
Good morning everybody and welcome to the Trust Factor, the podcast that guarantees success when you implement its divine teachings. My friends, it's Friday. Thank God it's Friday. We are going into another Shabbat, another weekend. God willing it'll be a meaningful one.
Speaker 1:I'd like to reiterate what we learned yesterday Very important principle, very, very important and we gave unbelievable examples In Judaism. In God's eyes, the outcome, whether you succeed or fail, is not what's important. That is not what he looks for. The only thing that he looks for is that you gave an effort, that you had the right mindset and that you made an effort Because the mindset is nice. You might be inspired to do all kinds of wonderful things, but if you don't put one foot in front of the other, if you don't take action after you've been inspired, then the inspiration was completely useless. That runs 180 degrees opposite to what humanity has taught us and is continuing to try and teach us in every secular society, that is, that you are responsible for outcomes. If you did well, if you made an effort and it worked out in your favor, then give yourself a pat on the back. Then you should take all the credit for it. In fact, today in corporate Canada and corporate America. Take credit even when it's not due. Do whatever you can to seem like the hero because you're concerned with outcomes. Nobody in today's society cares about the effort. If you come up empty-handed, your boss doesn't care that you put in your best effort At least most don't. There are obviously exceptions to the rule, but generally speaking, you can talk till you're blue in the face. You're not going to be promoted for your effort. You're going to be promoted for your outcome a positive outcome, an effort and it goes the wrong way, it goes sideways. Then what? No promotion? But you work just as hard, if not harder, than the other person. The other person succeeded. You didn't. You weren't working any less than that individual was. You weren't giving any less of an effort. In fact, you may have been given more of an effort and that other person may have been set up to win from the get-go. You have no idea.
Speaker 1:I think I shared a story a long time ago about my entrance into the world of finance about 25 years ago, and I was in training program and somebody was coming in, this young, new hotshot that I probably had a couple of years on and I was young at the time. I was geez. I was 25 years old and this guy comes in. He was younger than me and they called him the cold calling cowboy because he'd built such a successful business in such a short period of time, managing so much money, and he was going to come into this training program to teach us all the secrets of his success. And only after, when it finally clicked in my mind because I knew he looked familiar but when it finally clicked in my mind did I approach him and recognize who his mother was. His mother was one of the main bank managers at that bank and had been so for decades. A very successful bank manager. I know and you know, and everybody else who I'm telling this knows, that that individual grew his business because his mom grew his business. He wasn't a cold calling cowboy. He called the people his mother told him to call after she already primed them.
Speaker 1:I didn't know that and nobody in my class at the time knew that, but we were driven to think that this guy had done it all by himself and if we just do what he does, then we too will be successful. We don't know, and if we blame ourselves after that, if I make that same valiant effort that he made supposedly, and I make those phone calls and I show up and I give a hundred percent and it doesn't work out for me, then I'm going to kick myself, I'm going to beat myself down to a pulp. Why? Because everybody's told me he's done it, others have done it. I need to just follow his lead and it'll work out for me. My friends, that is secular society. Leave it in secular society. It's not reality, it's not truth. It is carrots that are being dangled in front of you by the powers that be to try to motivate you to do the things that they want you to do, to focus on the things that they want you to focus on. If you're following his rules, god's rules, the big boss who runs the show, there is no carrot being dangled in front of you. You stepped up and you gave an effort. The outcome does not matter. You get equal reward for stepping up and doing the right thing.
Speaker 1:Yesterday we gave that example of the commercial from the Special Olympics. I think it was a perfect illustration of what we're talking about, and we're going to finish it over here with the discussion about the opposite. I don't know if we're finishing it, but we're going to talk now about what happens when you transgress. Is it the same concept? I've got it in my mind to do something bad. Right, I'm sitting at a low point in my life and I need money. I'm sitting at a low point in my life and I need access to resources. And now I need to make a decision. Am I just going to trust in God, in some invisible entity that I can't touch, taste, feel, I can't use any of my senses to be able to prove to me that this God exists, and I have to sit and hope that he's going to provide for me after I've given my effort, even though I've seen that my effort has been fruitless. And now I have a thought in my mind that I have to go and rob a bank that I have to steal from an individual that I know has way too much more than he'll ever use and his family will ever use, and he won't even notice that it's gone.
Speaker 1:I have been thinking and convincing myself that I need to take matters into my hands and I need to do whatever I need to do to gain access to those resources. And I don't act on it. I don't act on it at all, or I act on it, but I fail. So now, what's the question? The question is if I've acted on it and I failed, or I don't even act on it, do I still get punished, because we know that I get rewarded for the intent and the effort that's being made right? I have an intent in my mind. I have a good thought in my mind. Maybe you don't get rewarded for the intent in your mind, but for the action that you take to move forward and do the good deed you get rewarded for. What about on a sin side? What about with an avera? If I'm thinking about doing something bad and I try to do it and I come up empty-handed, do I get punished for it? Is there a negative consequence from my attempt? And the answer is a debate amongst many.
Speaker 1:But there's a general principle in Judaism that says that all of the good things that are coming to us, all of the good decrees that have been laid out for us in the heavens, they're coming to us. We cannot stop the good that is coming to us, the bad things that are coming to us, the evil decrees that are coming to us. It is in our power to stop it. It is in our power to change the decree. That is what a loving father does. That is what I would do for my children. That is what any loving parent would do for their child to say, look, if you do well, you do right, the punishment that's coming to you I'm going to lessen, I'm going to make it easier, I'm going to shorten your grounding. You were grounded for a month. You do well, you behave, and I see that you're making a real effort. Then I may bring that down to two weeks, I may cut it short, right, but the good that's coming, I would never withhold it from my child.
Speaker 1:Why would I withhold good from my child? They've done well, they've excelled at something, they've made an effort, and I see that I have the ability to reward them for it. Of course I reward them for it, right? Same thing here. God, in his love for us, says if there's good coming to you, you're going to get it. There's nothing you can do to push that good away from you. But if there is bad coming your way, I'm going to give you an opportunity to deal with it and make sure that you never actualize it. That is what a loving parent does. And so it's the same principle over here.
Speaker 1:God says if you do good and you make an effort to change the world in a positive way, then, even if it doesn't work out, I'm rewarding you. And, at the same time, if you step up and you try and do something that was wrong and you planned it out and you took an effort to be able to rob somebody of their money, but you failed because of circumstances that were outside of your control, then there is no punishment, there is no negative consequence, because the benefit of the doubt is that, had you really been able to take it right to the final moment, that, because you are programmed in a godly fashion, because you have a godly soul, god gives you the benefit of the doubt to say, even if you brought it to fruition, right to the end, you still would have not struck the nail, the hammer would have not swung and struck that nail. You would have held back In your compassion, in your mercy, in the goodness that's within you. You would not have struck, you would have held back. God gives you that benefit if, of course, you haven't done it. If you've done it, then it's fair game. There's nothing you can do, nothing goes unaccounted for in this world, my friends. But if you've done it, the punishment is coming. If you haven't, because the fact is outside of your control, then God gives you the benefit of the doubt and does not give you the negative consequence associated with that. He only gives you the good and withholds the bad.
Speaker 1:My friends, that's the God we're talking about here, an all-loving God. He's here to see us succeed. That is his goal is to do for us, to give to us and to watch us grow and thrive. He doesn't want to punish us. He doesn't want to pound us into the dirt. He's not a masochistic God. That's not why he created us. He created us entirely to receive the goodness that he has to give to us. We have to take the step in the right direction. We have to take a step towards him, to realize and actualize that. Until you do that, my friends, you won't know what I'm talking about. This is all theory. When you step up and take that step and it doesn't have to be a big one, it can be a very small one.
Speaker 1:Now we're up on Rosh Hashanah. This is the month of the new year. This is the month of real change. If you want that extra help, this is the time to do it. The bar has been brought way down to allow you entrance, to allow you an opportunity to change your life, to make a real change for the better. This is the time to do it. You've got about 30 days, maybe a little bit longer, but that's really. This is the zone. This is the time that we're in to be able to improve ourselves with relatively little effort and relatively a lot more assistance from the Divine. My friends, that wraps it up for today. We will speak again on Sunday. I wish you an amazing, meaningful, powerful Shabbat. All of these Shabbats leading up to Rosh Hashanah are that much more powerful. Everything is amplified, so utilize it, disconnect from the craziness to connect back to your Creator and have an amazing Shabbat.
