Solo

Nobody will tell you this but the key to everything in life comes down to one thing. It is not one thing but a variant depending on how willing you are to be honest with yourself and others. That’s it. Honesty and nothing else.

Look at success or your personal definition of it. Now imagine that you are the only person on earth and more importantly the only person that will ever be on earth. No future generations or descendants. This is a seemingly self centered example but if you are not the center of your universe then who is? Really feel it. Like the movie, Castaway but there is nobody else left to have a package delivered. Now imagine what your day might entail. What are your interests and opinions? What are your goals if any? And most people will tell you if you try to impose this example as anything more than an example that you are in fact not the center of the universe. They are right but for the wrong reason. This is an example of perspective.

Being the only person on earth may seem to have little to do with honesty but it in fact defines it. If you were the only person on earth what would be the point of telling a lie. You generally only lie to yourself to benefit yourself by way of other people. If you are the only person on earth and you lie to yourself about how much food you have then you will soon be in trouble. So why lie to yourself or others when there are people around?

What a lie does is reduce your value to others, which is usually the opposite of what you were trying to do in the first place. All lies are lies. Being polite to the person with a zit on their face by not mentioning it is one thing if they ask you if you can see it say yes I can see it from outside. You don’t need to draw a circle around it with a magic marker so they can find it, trust me on this one, but tell them. If they cared, enough to ask then care enough to answer. Do not, however, point out zits to people that don’t ask.

That was a simple example how you as a commodity rise and fall with the stock market of your personal interactions. It is like underwear. A pair of Hanes size five underwear with Tinkerbelle on the back are worth about two dollars at Wal-Mart. The same pair if worn for a day by Angelina Jolie and not washed can fetch a few grand on E-Bay. You need to be Angelina’s underwear. Some people have hundreds of friends on face book but value few of them. It is better to have a few that will tell you that you have a zit on your face than five hundred that will let you walk around with a pocket of puss on your chin that you should only burst in the front yard to save the carpet.

That is the key to everything you need to know. Be honest. It is the deciding factor in raising or lowering the value of yourself to yourself and others.