"Do you think it's possible to trust someone more than yourself?" asked one of my good friends, while we were on our way to a party. I shared with him my thoughts, and have since taken some time to analyze the idea of trust. So here is my attempt to deconstruct what trust is and hopefully answer his question.

To me, trust is the belief that someone or something is able to meet our expectations. We live in a world of probabilities and estimates. Trusting an entity is giving them 100 percent certainty that they will (or will not) carry out certain acts to meet our expectations. I say "100 percent certainty" because you either trust them or you don't. As humans, we don't like uncertainty. Think back to the time where you had to use a communal fridge. If you have doubts that your food will be there hours later, you would either disguise it as a bio-hazard experiment or not put your food in that fridge. Should you doubt any entity, even for a split second, there can be no trust, and this makes trust very fragile.

Depending on the context, trust is also mostly a one-way street that places the burden on the trustee. It's easier to trust a business entity because both parties sign off on agreements and contracts. Both parties know what's expected of themselves, and there's legal protection should any party not fulfill its expectations.

However, when we study social relationships between people, most of the expectations we have aren't communicated. There are many unspoken rules in society: The basic ones are don't steal and do no harm to your neighbor. When being in a relationship, platonic or romantic, each party has certain expectations of how the other will act. They usually trust that the other party cares for their well-being and the bond that they share together.

For example, when going to the movies, a group of friends will expect each person to save seats for the entire party. I trust that my friends will save me a seat while I use the restroom or grab popcorn for us all, but more often than not, this expectation is usually not communicated. It's unfair to not communicate our expectations to the other party, even if those expectations are reasonable and common.

Evidently, matters get complicated when people of different cultures come together. Different cultures have different social norms which, if not communicated, will cause distrust among members of a social group. Therefore, to ensure that the burden of trust is fair on both parties, communication of expectations has to be carried out, especially in social situations. Communicating that we trust someone might lead to abuse of trust, but we'll save that discussion for later.

It's also difficult to trust any entity, because trust takes time to build and relies on historical data. We generally trust a company after having used its products for a long period of time, and if the products never once failed to meet our expectations.

This applies to relationships, too, where responsibilities (like saving me a seat at the movies) are given to other parties and those responsibilities were carried out according to our expectations. Whenever we enter a new relationship with another entity, we strive to obtain historical data about them, be it through online reviews, a personal vouches from friends or rumors. We try to safeguard our own interests and lower our expectations at the beginning of a new relationship. We first trust them with the little things before trusting them with things that carry weight. Where there's no historical data for us to refer to, the full burden of building trust falls on the other party, and we bear the risk of not having our expectations met.

Now that we have the basics of trust deconstructed, I shall answer my friend's question: "Do you think it is possible to trust someone more than yourself?"

My answer would be yes, because sometimes, another person may have that 100 percent certainty of meeting an expectation of myself, and I do not. Yes, we do in fact have better control of our actions to meet our own expectations, but we are human, after all. Most of us are weak (physically and mentally), and we make mistakes. For example, when you're intoxicated and unable to make clear, informed decisions, your sober and trusted friend would have a higher certainty to help you make certain decisions, pre-discussed before you downed those tequila shots.

There are also certain instances in life where we're forced to trust someone more than ourselves, because they have a better understanding of a certain topic and have gone through an experience similar to ours. I guess you could say trusting someone also requires letting go of your own ego.

In certain aspects of our life, for example, in business and relationships, we seek mentors to guide us in making decisions because they are experts in these areas or have gained wisdom from going through its challenges. These mentors can be anyone, from your parents to an investor in your own company. Building trust in a mentor can be relatively easy, as their reputation precedes them and is shown through the success they've accomplished.

However, I don't believe that I'm able to fully trust one single entity (especially not the government) in all aspects of my life at all times. Although my rule of thumb in placing trust in any entity is to obtain sufficient and reliable historical data, it's important to remember that as good as the data is, we're all humans (corporations are run by humans) in the end and are ultimately flawed. We have to understand this fact and be prepared to be let down (betrayed) once in awhile. When this happens, the cycle of building trust starts all over again and a new data set will have to be logged from zero, assuming that you give them a second chance to prove themselves.

On a global scale, the world is increasingly run on credit these days, and I would argue that trust is the most important currency of the world. Banks rely on credit scores, which is based on historical data on spending and repayment habits, to approve loans and mortgages. Investors rely on countries' credit ratings to determine which economy has the ability to repay bond dividends. Without trust, the world will come to a complete stop.