Truth

I think that in life we should aim to be truth tellers much more than being embraced as doing the popular thing. After all popularity often means bowing to the crowd or watering your messaging down to please as many people as possible. Since it is impossible to please everyone, we must strive to please ourselves first and hopefully that message aligns with truth.

In our professional lives, for example, it can be tempting to skew ourselves towards what management wants rather than what is right and moral. Over my career I have faced scenarios where putting my signature on a document would have pleased a client in the short term but ultimately prove detrimental down the line for the project. In the end I kept my self respect and became known in my industry as a straight shooting professional who stuck to their guns.

We cannot bend truth because it is not infinitely elastic and it will ultimately ricochet in our faces in a moment of reckoning.

What I have learned in my life is that truth rises to the top like a good oil floats on water. It cannot be escaped and no amount of agitation will prevent its journey to the surface. I left my industry when I felt sales were becoming more important than truth and doing things right. 

I did so with perfect timing.