PROACTIVE ASSURANCE OF HONESTY
I’ve told this before but the lesson bears repeating. I was only about 5 years old when me and mama went to the store to buy me a small flashlight. In my zeal to choose the pretty red one, I found – halfway home in the car – I still had the other one – the blue one in my other hand. I told mama and she immediately made a ‘U’ turn back to the store where I was to NOT ONLY PUT BACK THE EXTRA ONE but I was to tell the store attendant what had happened.

I wasn’t being scolded or reprimanded in any way – because it was an accident – but I was having a life lesson driven home to me that I would never forget: I was to RECOGNIZE A WRONG HAD BEEN DONE AND NEEDED TO BE CORRECTED, INCLUDING A TOTAL ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT.

Many years later this invaluable lesson kicked in again. I was running my own School and decided to enlist the services of a tax consultant. He showed me an error that I had made and added “Right now it’s only a mistake, but left uncorrected it would be a felony!” I painstakingly had him go back over my former years and correct the same mistake, in spite of my incurring a penalty.

It felt so good to have chosen the way of honesty – full disclosure at any cost. No excuses, no discussion, just godlike integrity! It so reminds me of both Joel and Herb!