Tao Te Ching 17

When the Master governs, the people are hardly aware that he exists. If you don’t trust the people, you make them untrustworthy.
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How many politicians, religious leaders, business executives, neighbors, parents and friends have ignored this simple wisdom? Some of my greatest failings have come from a failure to trust. Conversely, some of my greatest success has come from the simplest acts of trust.

This injunction includes trusting ourselves, trusting our inherent nature, trusting our intuitive sense of what to do or not to do. If we don’t trust ourselves, we make ourselves untrustworthy, and when we make ourselves untrustworthy other people sense that and are likely to feel the same about us.

Trusting ourselves is an expression of self-respect. Trusting others is an expression of love. Subtle governance is an art.

Failing to trust is an expression of fear. We seem to believe that the more control we assert, the more secure we will be. We seem to believe that the more aware people are of our leadership, the more respected we will be. As is so often the case, the Tao Te Ching invites us to turn our beliefs upside down.