Success Quote by Stephen Covey

Covey frames trust like an equation because he’s speaking to a management class that wants human messiness to behave like a spreadsheet. “Function of two things” is corporate-friendly poetry: it promises you can diagnose and fix a social problem with clear inputs. The move is comforting, and strategic. In workplaces where mistrust is often treated as a personality defect or “culture issue,” Covey offers an actionable map that lets leaders talk about ethics without sounding preachy and talk about performance without sounding cold.

The split between character and competence is also a subtle rebuke to two common myths: that good people automatically make good partners, and that high performers deserve unlimited leeway. By naming “motive” and “intent,” he’s hinting at the everyday paranoia of office life: people aren’t only judged on what they do, but why others think they’re doing it. A competent colleague with dubious intent reads as a threat; a well-meaning colleague who can’t deliver becomes a liability. Trust collapses either way.

There’s a cultural context here too: Covey’s brand of business wisdom emerged in an era of corporate self-improvement that tried to fuse personal morality with professional success. The subtext is aspirational and disciplinary at once. Trust isn’t framed as an unearned gift; it’s a credential you build, maintain, and can lose. That’s empowering if you’re trying to lead; it’s also a quiet reminder that in modern organizations, your “track record” is always auditioning alongside your conscience.