The Power of Trust

Deep Kalra - Chairman and Group CEO

 

"The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them." --Ernest Hemingway

 

When I started out to build MakeMyTrip, I had underestimated how much money I would need to get things going. So in 2000, I decided to seek funding and met with Neeraj Bhargava from eVentures. I did not really know him, but over a period of time involving back and forth of business plans and documents, and numerous conversations, we developed a professional relationship built on trust and shared interests.

 

To seek funding and explain the model, I met him at a mall in Mumbai. I jotted down the details on a paper napkin and passed it to him. Neeraj went through it and he agreed to invest in my vision. He confirmed the 2-million-dollar deal by signing on the same paper napkin! As I walked out of Crossroads Mall in Tardeo, Mumbai, it dawned upon me that something huge had happened.

 

A couple of months later, not much had changed. I had my moments of doubt. Should I have done something different that day? A 2-million-dollar deal on a paper napkin, really?

 

Fast forward to 2019, and a lot of people won’t believe that the very existence of a company that now has 4000+ employees, was decided on a piece of paper napkin at a restaurant. Other than a few moments of uncertainty, I believed that Neeraj would come through and he did. And though one might say that the protagonist in this story is the napkin, I think the real hero of this story is trust.

 

The bedrock of all other values is trust. A mutual, unspoken trust in any relationship—be it friends, spouses, business partners, managers and their team—is what determines everything.

 

The secret to successful partnerships at work and at home is to trust implicitly and assume that the person you’re with is giving their 200%. That is exactly what we believe of our Go-Trippers. The day a new joiner enters the office building, we believe that they are committed to performing well. Now we simply have to facilitate and empower them to succeed. Trust begets trust, and that’s how magic unfolds.

 

Contracts and agreements are important. They protect you when things go wrong. But this one powerful tool—the ability to build a trusting relationship with your peers and seniors— will help you achieve more than any piece of paper can. The ability to build trust in your relationships, will bear fruits in different ways over the long run—some that you can’t even imagine right now.