The hardest kind of honesty

I like people who are honest - about themselves. Among many different traits I can like, I end up noticing and liking this one the most. In fact, think about your own life, I bet you can dislike people on several counts, but you like people on one or two major traits.

Honesty pervades several parts of our life and can be interpreted from as many different angles. Yet the most enduring kind of honesty and probably the hardest of them all is to be honest to ourselves. To be who we are and not be afraid to reflect that in our actions.

I recently had a meeting with the head of a very reputed organization, a man who holds important positions, and does a good job of all of them. I was impressed that he didn't just talk the talk, he walked the talk. Every sms, email, and phone call reflected the values that his job demanded of him. Though that kind of commitment is hardly ever job driven.

We had a great conversation, and at the end I couldn't help asking him how he coped with so many responsibilities and if he was happy being so busy? His answer was prompt and brutally honest. No. He wasn't happy with being that busy and didn't think it was wise to be working as much. He was most disarming when he said, he was at a loss about how to set this right. But he needed to.

I gaped at how someone like him could afford to be so honest. Then I realized, he wasn't being honest to me really, he was just being honest to himself. It was a habit, he couldn't pose to be any one else than who he really was.

I came away a wiser person and now have proof that even when the stakes are high, we can be honest to ourselves and by extension to others. And that's why I think he is so successful.