“A lack of trust is your biggest expense,” says David Horsager, a message he has brought to Fortune 500 companies, nonprofits, and governments the world over. Without trust, transactions cannot occur. Without trust, influence is destroyed. Without trust, organizations lose productivity, relationships, reputation, talent, customer loyalty, creativity, morale, revenue, and results.

And there is a reliable, research-based, repeatedly proven-in-practice way to build trust. In this book, Horsager uses the popular business fable format to make his method accessible to as wide an audience as possible. Horsager tells the story of a young software executive facing a critical deadline who discovers the eight Pillars of Trust: clarity, compassion, character, competency, commitment, connection, contribution, and consistency.

In the remaining third of the book, Horsager departs from the story to go deeply into the eight Pillars of Trust, describing the research behind them and offering tools for applying them. Trust, not money, is the currency of business and life, and this is a comprehensive guide to building it.