Golf simulators have become increasingly popular and powerful in recent years. They provide both entertainment and educational value for golf enthusiasts. Simulators can provide an extension to practice and play for golfers that live in wintry regions. Simulators are available for home users and man caves as well as in commercial facilities. It’s estimated that the golf simulator market globally was around $1.8B US in 2023 and forecast to grow at 10% plus per year through 2030. The demand for these simulators is directly tied to their ability to replicate reality. The closer the experience comes to real-live golf, the more people are prepared to pursue playing them. Simulators allow players to experience multiple golf courses. They enjoy a perspective of the course from multiple levels. Additionally, sophisticated simulators capture all kinds of data about a golfer’s swing and the ball flight. These add to the reality of the experience and help aid in training.
Imagine a golf simulator that offers none of these features. All this simulator provides is a dark room with a mat, a tee, and some balls. You bring yourself and your clubs and can hit away in the dark to your heart’s content. Moreover, you’re provided some ear plugs so that you can’t even hear your swing or impact of clubface with the ball. This simulator provides no feedback whatsoever on your swing or ball flight. With each swing you know not how well you hit the ball, where it went, what you have left to play on the hole. No data or instruction is offered. No video replays. Nothing. How compelling would this experience be? Would this be an environment where excellence could evolve?
We’re unlikely to develop in the dark. It’s tough to slog through the fog. We’re not mushrooms that flourish in the dark. To the contrary. Transparency, truth, and trust. These three to build brilliance are a must. We need to honor honesty and cherish candor to accomplish more. We need the flashlight of feedback for our skills to shine.
It starts with transparency. We need clarity and a willingness to look to see where we are. Ideally, we’re using not just our own eyes and ears but those of other experts in the area we’re seeking to develop. We depend on the direction of others to help us see where we are. Under the bright lights of reality is where the seeds of success are grown. From transparency we seek truth.
In The Masculinity Manifesto, Ryan Micheler writes, “Truth, after all, is the bedrock of growth. You cannot grow (or expect others to) if you are unwilling to face the reality of the current situation.” If you have ambition, are seeking to cultivate competence, you’ve got to be willing to face feedback. If you’re going to keep kneading knowledge, why? Because you’re looking for the truth, you’re seeking the path that produces progress. If you’re intent on improvement and motivated by mastery, you’ve got to value transparency and truth.
At a speech given in Calgary, Alberta, Canada on January 24, 2024, Tucker Carlson said, “The second you tell the truth about something, you are filled with this almost supernatural — you are filled with this power from somewhere else. The more you tell the truth the stronger you become.” Put a different way Thomas Jefferson observed, “Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.”
When we fear the truth, we hide from honesty. Yes, we’re told, “the truth will set you free.” However, the truth will also put us on the hook and eviscerate excuses. It doesn’t necessarily feel good to be judged. A sad reality is that many of us would prefer to feel good than to be good. As a result, we turn off the torch of truth and seek the bliss of ignorance. Are you committed to truth or self-preservation? Are you willing to acknowledge mistakes? Truth is taking a long-term perspective. It’s facing and doing what’s uncomfortable in the moment so that a better tomorrow can be forged. Transparency and truth are a must because they are what beget trust.
To be duplicitous is to be the opposite of congruous. Two-faced or chameleon-like and “adapting” to different environments leads to being seen as shifty and unreliable. Truth is seen as authentic which is observed as what you see is what you get. The authentic are aligned. They are congruent. Their thoughts, words, and actions are fluent. Those that are aligned and consistent will breed greater trust. Consistency across contexts increases our reliability as an individual.
These are the characteristics of people we admire. Of those we choose to follow. Of those we seek to emulate. However, prioritizing truth won’t always make you popular. Respected, in some circles, by men and women like you, yes. Popular with the masses, no. Micheler notes that those that will appreciate a “truth-teller” will be those “people who want to grow a spine themselves. Those are the people who matter.”
For whom are you? We answer the question with our honesty. The more honest we are, the more we are for the person. The more dishonest we are, the more we are preserving our feelings. When you care more about yourself than another, you tell them what they want to hear. When you care more about the other person than yourself, you tell the truth.
How does trust get created? It is built day in and day out in every interaction we have with ourselves and each other. Trust flows from being transparent and truthful with us and others. It’s forged from honoring our word and not being opportunistic. Trust isn’t something that magically materializes. It’s something that can and should be consciously crafted. It requires patience. Trust like many things begins from the inside out. Steven Covey provides a quote in The Speed of Trust to capture his perspective from a Persian poet Rumi. Rumi offered a thousand years ago, “Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.” Self-respect is nothing more than trust in self. We must first learn to trust ourselves, then those closest to us. We can then move to wider circles of contact. Covey offers what he calls the “5 Waves of Trust” as a model to pave the path for our actions. Trust starts with the self, then moves to relationships, organizations, markets, and ends with society. We start at the innermost level and slowly move outwards.
Do you trust yourself? Do your actions align with your thoughts? Do you do what you say you will? Are you reliable, accountable? Each time you do what you say you will whether someone sees it or not, you earn personal credibility capital. Your confidence grows from the competence you display. You begin to trust yourself. Then, the more publicly you do this, the more others will notice. You’ll be better able to positively answer the following questions. Do your actions inspire the trust of others? Are you believable? Do you believe yourself?
Earning trust is work. Where we are successful at developing trust in one area of our life, it may be easier to build on this in other areas, but it’s not guaranteed. Trust must be earned in each facet where we operate separately. Developing trust in an area is based on our ability to demonstrate competence in this area. The more areas over which we can demonstrate our trustworthiness, the more trustworthy we’re seen overall. Our character trust becomes the reflection of the sum of individual competence-based trust we’re able to develop. Covey offers the 4 Cores of Credibility as a framework for fostering personal credibility. These factors fuel trust in yourself as well as make you trustworthy to others. Two of these traits involve your character and the other two revolve around your capability.
The first core of credibility is integrity. Integrity is about being aligned and consistent. Do your actions match your words? The more they do, the more integrity you have. Are you able to “call a foul” on yourself? Do the means matter or do the ends justify the means? Integrity involves a commitment to honesty. Truth precedes trust. With integrity we’re aspiring as America’s first President, George Washington noted to, “what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.” The process matters. Principles are prioritized over the personal. Do you follow the rules because of concerns of compliance or because of honor? Are you clear on your values? Do your values fuel your actions? Do you honor commitments you make to yourself and others? Your individual integrity flows first and foremost from making and keeping personal commitments. Do you do what you say you will do? Do you get up when you say you will without hitting the snooze button repeatedly, for example? Integrity starts from the moment we wake up. With each act that is consistent with our values, we build confidence in ourselves and our integrity.
The second core is intent. Intent involves being clear as to what you hold dear. Do you have an agenda? Developing a personal set of values fosters your integrity. Have you set self-determined standards? Are your actions driven by principles? For whom are you? Are you self-interested or considerate of others? Do you consider the well-being of others in your decision making? How much do you care about others? Are you presenting win-win options? Or is your intent to win at all costs? Why are you doing what you’re doing? How do you stand to gain? What is your intent? With integrity and intent, we and others come to see us as trustworthy. We build our intent by reflecting on our values. Take time to consider your answers to questions like the ones offered above. Then we can improve our credibility by declaring our intent and then acting consistently with it. Trust builds in an environment of transparency. Take time to consider how you can better communicate your intentions? Finally, we can improve our intent from developing a view of the world that isn’t a zero-sum game. Our success doesn’t have to come at someone else’s expense. There’s plenty to go around for everyone.
The third core is our capability. What objective evidence of competence in a domain do you have? Have you put in the time and effort to develop skills? Do you continue to invest in new learning? Can you present a body of work that reflects your capabilities? Have you earned grit that demonstrates how you’re legit? Capability is reflected in education and experience that others can objectively see. Your capability reflects your relevance in a room. Why would others pay attention to you? What is it you have to offer? Will you be able to get the job done? Where you can display evidence of competence, you’re more likely to inspire confidence. Moreover, our capability isn’t one and done. It’s something we must continuously craft. A commitment to constant learning is a way to bolster our capability.
The fourth core of credibility is results. Results are the outcomes produced by our capabilities. What is your track record? Why should you believe in yourself? What have you accomplished to date? Are you considered a high performer? Do you consistently produce results? Can this be articulated and seen by others? Your credit rating, for example, reflects the results you have been able to offer those willing to extend credit. The better at paying back what you say you will when you say you will, the better the credit rating. You have produced objective results and are rewarded for it. We build credibility by producing. We need to realize it’s not just being present but accomplishing specific outcomes that is what counts. We need to deliver progress to believe in ourselves and for others to believe in us.
An absence of trust implies doubt. If the distrust is strong, it shows as suspicion. Where we trust, we take things on faith. We are more comfortable acting and moving forward without seeing a crystal-clear path. Progress is assisted and the path proceeds easily downhill. Where trust isn’t present, the path forward is dark, murky cluttered with debris, and moves up a steep and winding trail. A path without trust is much slower and harder to navigate.
Take a moment to think about a past relationship you have had with someone where trust was lacking. How did it feel? Were you able to get things accomplished together? What was the communication like? Did you feel confident sharing intimate details of yourself or your project with the person you didn’t trust?
As a former Chairman of Johnson & Johnson, Jim Burke, has noted, “You can’t have success without trust. The word trust embodies almost everything you can strive for that will help you succeed. You tell me any human relationship that works without trust.”
The 4 Cores of Credibility offer an actionable framework for us to cultivate our credibility which fills our trust tank. Your credibility capital is built on integrity, intent, capability, and results. Focus first on developing trust in yourself by aligning your thoughts, words, and actions. Then be intentional and transparent in your actions and develop your capability by building a history of delivering results. As your trust in yourself expands, others will see where you stand and their trust, you’ll better command.