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 176 - Calm Over Fear
Fear thrives in the gap between our effort and the outcomes we can’t control. We close that gap by telling a personal story of anxiety turned into calm before a high-stakes business meeting and how one Torah class reframed risk, fear, and responsibility. That shift—give your full effort, then release the result—didn’t just change feelings; it cleared space for wise action and a favourable outcome that reshaped a company and a life.
We explore the everyday ways ego and blame sabotage growth. When things go well, it’s easy to hoard credit; when they go poorly, we crush ourselves or point fingers at God. We push back with a practice of real-time gratitude for the obvious gifts and for the “seemingly bad” moments that often carry training we only recognize later. Think of it like good parenting: challenges arrive not to break us but to build resilience, agency, and faith. That lens calms the nervous system and restores focus, whether you’re negotiating a deal or navigating a hard season.
You’ll hear practical advice for students, early-career professionals, and anyone frozen by choice overload. We map the difference between means and source: study, networking, and strategy matter, but they are not the ultimate cause of success. The same applies to dating and commitment, where fear of the “wrong choice” blocks people from starting or saying yes to the right person. We offer a simple toolkit—morning gratitude, pre-action intention, and post-outcome composure—that makes room for courage, clarity, and trust without drifting into passivity.
Join us for an honest, faith-forward conversation about work, love, and the mindset that frees you to act with conviction while letting go of what was never yours to control. If this resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend who’s stuck at a crossroads, and leave a review with the biggest decision you’re ready to make now.
Until next time, have a spectacular day!
Good morning, everybody. Welcome to the Trust Factor, the podcast that guarantees your success when you implement its divine age old teachings. If the audio is not perfect today, I apologize. I'm traveling. We should be back to normal tomorrow. I hope everybody enjoyed Friday's interview. I thoroughly did. I've had a lot of amazing feedback from so many people on the on the interview. I've got another interview lined up for Friday. God willing, we'll have a series of Friday interviews. I've got a powerhouse, another powerhouse lined up for Friday. I'll release the name tomorrow, God willing. Rabbi Hildesheim hit it out of the park. I want you to know, I've known him for almost 20 years. When I became a Balchuva, when I started to recognize that this world is more than just eating, sleeping, and working, and I recognize that there's a God that runs the show. I ended up going to a Torah class in my very early days, and that Torah class was probably my first one, and it was at Rabbi Hildesheim's in the basement of the building that he's in now. But back then it was not built, it was just getting going. I remember taking my wife, and Michelle and I went, and we had a class in the basement with a few other people, and I don't remember the subject matter, but what I do recall vividly is that the very next day, Michelle and I had a meeting with our business partners at the time, and we were very nervous. We were very nervous because we didn't know what was going to happen, and things weren't great. They weren't terrible, but they weren't great. And so we weren't sure what to expect, and there was a sense of nervousness that we both had. And I know and I can tell you that when we came out of this class, it put our minds at ease. And not only that, but I ended up having this sense of absolute calm going into the meeting. All of my fears faded away, and I felt as though I had the strongest army in the world at my back, and that there was no way in the world that something bad was going to come out of this. And in fact, it's exactly what happened. We ended up being able to buy our business back entirely, to own it for pennies on the dollar, to be autonomous and not to have to cater to partners that weren't working out. It really worked out in our benefit. But I did not have that feeling, neither of us did, before we had gone to that class. So Rabbi Hildesheim had a big impact on my Torah observance very, very early on. And so if you're in the area and you need a rabbi, he and his wife and his family are stewards of our community, and so many people rely on them and gain from them on a daily basis. The next rabbi that's coming up is going to be equally powerful but in a different vein altogether. We'll talk about that more later. By the way, I've got a short list of people who I'd like to invite to speak on the podcast. If you know people that you think are powerful and influential and good speakers and have what to share, they don't have to be rabbis. They don't have to be community leaders. They can be people who are in business, business leaders, people who've got experience in life, who've dealt with stresses and challenges, and have overcome them with their Bitachon, with their trust and their relationship with their creator. I would love to reach out to them. So please share a name and I'd be happy to reach out. Let's get back into this, my friends. We left off last time. We were talking about the differences between somebody who has trust and somebody who lacks it. And I want to clarify something because I said, it was my opinion, that one of the tragedies of the individual who does not have trust in Hashem is that when he loses, when he fails, when he makes a mistake, he blames himself and he kicks himself when he's down and he's very hard on himself. That's who we are. We're we're, especially if you're that proud that when things go well, you don't give credit where credit is due. You don't even have the ability to acknowledge God because of the ego. If that's your character, then when things get bad and when you've made a mistake, oftentimes you will blame yourself and you'll be very hard on yourself. But it's more than that. And what he says over here is equally powerful. He says that this individual will blame God. Suddenly, he finds God? What happened when things were good? What happened when God gave you a baby or multiple children that came into this life? What happened when God gave you your your husband or your spouse? What happened when God gave you that windfall in business? What happened when God does all these wonderful things for you on a daily basis on a second by second basis? How come you don't acknowledge them then? You know what happens? When things get bad, when they've lost the deal, when they get really bad, they blame God. Where was God when I needed him? Where was where is God now? Right? It must be God. They're not content and they have to blame other people. Those who don't blame themselves have to blame others. And oftentimes the target of their ire and their blame is God. That is unfortunately how it works. Oftentimes when they're on their deathbed or when they're sick and they're in hospital, then they reach out to their creator. You don't have to wait, my friends. It's much sweeter when you acknowledge and thank Hashem for the beautiful things that he does for you in your life, and then you come to the realization that even the things that you think are bad, but they're really only seemingly bad, you recognize that they too are good. They too are perfect, and instead of complaining about them, you bring yourself to actually thank God for them. Thanking him for the things that you would otherwise think are bad because you recognize that there's no such thing. A father would never do something to harm his child. It simply does not happen. A parent is not out to harm their children unless they have real severe emotional problems and they're not cut out to be parents, which can happen. A healthy relationship of a parent and a child is one where the parent does everything that they can to see their child thrive and succeed, not put stumbling blocks in their way. And if there is a stumbling block, it's there because the parent wants the child to overcome it. The parent wants the child to be challenged in a way that's healthy, that will build them up and make them stronger. Because we all know what doesn't kill us makes us stronger, and it's true. If we walk through this life unchallenged, then it becomes boring and we become weaker. And we're not suited to take on the challenges that life has in store for us. It is these very difficulties and these challenges that we go through that allow us to build up a resilience to it, and God gives it to us in his loving kindness. Let's touch on or introduce the next third area of distinction. He says the third difference between a person who has trust in God and one who lacks it is that one who trusts in God, although he engages in some means of earning a living or achieving other worldly benefits, he does not rely in his heart on those means and does not expect any benefit or harm from them unless this is Hashem's will. I engage in my business, I engage in relationships. We all do. We have to engage with other people, we have to interact with others in our job and in our professional and personal lives. We have to engage with other human beings. But what we recognize is that these are just us going through the motions. That is it. We are not responsible for the outcome of ourselves going through these motions. God is responsible. And any good or any bad that will come from our daily interactions is directly from Hashem. If you're making millions, you're going to make millions in whatever industry you're in. If you're going to lose money, you're going to lose money in whatever industry you're in. It does not depend on the vocation. It does not depend on what you chose to do for a living. You know, I say it often because I speak to a lot of kids, and I say kids loosely because I speak to a lot of teenagers or adults, guys who are in their twenties, people who are in university, and I often tell them the same thing. They are all plagued by a similar challenge, and that challenge is that they are so scared to make a decision in one direction or another. They are so terrified to execute on something because they fear that they're going to make a wrong decision. And somehow they're never going to be able to recover from it. And the problem is that today there's a million different choices. There always have been a million different choices of which way to go, what to do for a living, what do I want to do that's going to make me content and happy, and money, enough money to be able to live the lifestyle that I want. And they get frozen with fear that they're paralyzed, they're not able to make a decision, and they ultimately don't make one. And it's not just with work, it's also with relationships. So many don't want to get into a relationship. They don't even want to start dating because they're scared that they're going to date the wrong person and make the wrong decision and commit to the wrong individual. Or they've started the dating process and they know they've got the right person, but they're terrified to take it to the next level because they're just not sure. What if there's somebody else? What if this person isn't 100%? That's the plague of this generation more than previous generations for sure, my friends. The answer to all of this is the same. Recognize that the outcome is not in your hand. You've made an effort, you've put forward a hundred percent. That's all you have to give. The rest, my friends, is out of your hands. That wraps it up today. Tomorrow, we're back from home base. Hopefully, if the audio wasn't so good today, it'll be better tomorrow. Have an amazing day, my friends. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. We'll catch up tomorrow.
