How do you defined Trust?

Lately, i have too much free times on my hand, which prompted me to start evaluating about myself, the GOOD, the Bad and the Ugly side of me, one issue at a time. This time, i'm having some rough time with TRUST, how do you earned someone TRUST? and how do I make sure someone can TRUST me?

When I was visiting Taipei for the first time back in Jan/Feb of 2008, I have never met my friend Andy, which I've been chatting online for the past couple of years. Andy used to live in Chicago, he told me he had ran into me in Boystown a couple of times before, but i don't recalled ever meeting him in person. When I arrived at TaoYuan international airport at about 10pm, i followed the printed out directions Andy gave me to go to the bus station, which bus to get on, and when i was at the main station, which taxi i should take and how much i should pay them as he instructed in the print out. I got to the front desk of his building, and the door man, who was already expecting me to arrived, gave me an envelop that has keys and a cell phone that Andy had left for me. As i got up to his condo, someone that i have never met before, and i'm a stranger in someone's house, only to find he's still out having dinner with his friends and i was left all alone in his place. That was a TREMENDOUS TRUST someone has bestowed on me, it was also a TREMENDOUS TRUST that i took on someone I have never met, to go 1/2 way around the world to visit. It's amazing and unbelievable that the amount of faith, and chance you placed on a friend can changed the way we interact with other.

I always give the people i met or interacted with a benefit of a doubt, i always believe in the GOOD side of them, and if that person is my friend, he usually has my trust and Vice versa. I'm not saying I'm a saint or anything like that, when i was a banker back then, they did a good job of taught me how to profiled customers. If a customer came in for a loan and start making up stories about their financial background instead of tell me the truth so i can trust them, work with them and help them with their problems. I can easily tell right away that he's bluffing because even before me mutter a word, i already had his financial report generated by the credit agencies in front of my computer screen. Or when a customer came in and asked for his over drafted fees to be reverse because the gay bath house he frequently go there days after days, and weeks after weeks accidentally charged him when he's not even there. Yet when i called up the manager of that bath house to investigate the transaction, it showed he was on taped paying for that transaction with our bank card. For those people, they're getting NOTHING from me. For them, they HAVE TO EARN MY TRUST.

Yet, FOR MY FRIENDS, they ALREADY HAVE MY TRUST the moment i considered them as friend, they DO NOT have to earned it from me. HOWEVER, i feel like i DO HAVE TO EARNED IT from them, which i don't mind, because I know not everything operate like me. When it come to friends or personal relationships, it's easier to turned a blind eye to a friend who had loss your TRUST. Because for me, I always have good faith in my friends, for better and worst right? It's not easy to become friend with someone, and it's HARDER to keep someone you cherish as a friend. That's why for me, TRUST was in place as a building block to a better friendship. If someone knocked that out, what's there left for a good friendship to be rely on? But HOW MUCH MISTRUST can you take from a friend before you completely shut that person out?

So can we TRUST each other?
I'm an Optimistic, i hope so! ;-)