Are You Ever Really Honest?

I want you to join me in a thought experiment.

What do you think would happen if you and everyone in your life, you partner, your friends, your colleagues, your bosses, your extended family, everyone openly, honestly and without hostility spoke the truth when talking?

There is no obligation on anyone to actually do what they are asked. I just want you to consider what the world would look like if we all were more open about our goals and our needs.

Would we be happier knowing what others need? Would it be a more pleasant world to live in to know that your employee wants a raise in 4 months if they hit certain targets? Would you be angry if your child told you that they just needed 2 hours alone without you?

Could you handle the truth?

I wish this was life. I long for this kind of reality.

There is so much anxiety tied to not knowing. So much stress that goes along with the unsaid and undone.

I know it’s not easy and I understand it wont take hold overnight but I want to ask you to do something now:

Be more honest today. Just today. For one day.

Don’t be mean. Just be honest.

If someone asks you how you are, don’t lie. Tell them you are tired because you watched Netflix too late last night. If someone asks you what you’d like for lunch, tell them exactly what you’d like even if they likely can’t make it or buy it for you.

If your partner asks you what you want to do over the weekend, think about it and tell them.

That’s it. That’s all I want from you today. One day of increased honesty.

Perhaps you’ll tell you boss exactly what you want out of the next 12 months of work. Perhaps you’ll tell your lover exactly what you want in bed tonight. Perhaps you’ll tell your family that you love them and really mean it. Perhaps you wont have the guts to be honest. I don’t know. But I want to find out.

Comment on this article when your day of honesty is over and tell me about it. What did people say? What did people think? How did they react? How did you feel? Was it easy or difficult to do?

After one day of honesty, tell me if you’d do it again.

One of my Nicisms that I live by is: Be honest if possible.

It’s not always the best idea to be honest, I get that. But when it’s possible you should choose to be honest.

I think the world needs a bit more transparency, openness and honesty when it comes to our communication. I want to decipher less and serve more. I want to be baffled less and useful more. I want more honesty.

How about you?

Honesty is the best business policy when selling online

Honesty in business, sales, marketing and advertising is by no means a fresh new concept. Yet it is fast becoming an integral one in the world that we inhabit.There are many posts that discuss transparency online in a personal sense. Don't lie, cheat, steal, defraud or do anything that might dent your reputation online. But I am referring more to the concept of honesty when selling online to the less knowledgeable.This has become an absolutely imperative part of selling and talking about online with people. Many companies and agencies are interested and intrigued by online at the moment because it is the direction in which the world is moving. But there are dangers.The main danger that I have come across is the overselling of the potential of online right now. Many companies almost have their finger on the pulse of things. But this means that they know of Facebook, Youtube and other sites that they can use in a social arena to promote their products. Yet many of them think that the viral nature of the social web world wide applies directly to South Africa. It doesn't. Viral in SA probably means, if you're lucky, a few thousand views of a video and a couple of blog posts. In the Western world viral translates to a few million views of a video and a few hundred thousand links to or embeds of a video. Those are the cold hard facts and expectations should be readjusted accordingly.Unfortunately the "people in the know" often oversell the potential of social media in South Africa to get the hype up and the profit margins higher. This is bad. This sort of selling is doing detrimental damage to the truth and success of the market in SA. This sort of selling makes it very difficult to create a consistent and successful stream of clients, revenue and business in the online industry. People are being burned and are staying away from spending money online because of misleading sales and delivery pitches. Return of investment (ROI) is being oversold and underdeliverd. Again, this is bad.Honesty is key. Clients need to know the truth and still want to go forward with a campaign and experiment, play in the space and engage with one or two hundred people in stead of hoping to gain one or two million. It wont happen so don't sell it that way.

The Honest Post

The honest postThis is going to be the most honest thing that I have written in years. I am going to make this simple, and let it be known that life happens to people while they’re living.I am scared that the love that I have will leave me. I am scared that I will die. I am not scared of death. I am scared of what I will never experience because of death. I don’t think I will live to old age, I don’t think that I will die young. I know that there are some things that I will never get the chance to do, never get to feel, live or experience and that scares me. I am scared of failure. I think that everyone is. I am scared of success. I think everyone is.I am in love, but scared to love. I am in lust but scared to touch. I am a success but scared to be successful and living while scared to feel. I am brave but a coward and weak while trying to be strong. I am none of the things that I say I am and everything at the same time.I’m not sure why I am writing all of this but to be honest I think that we all feel like we are alone, but we are not. I know that I am loved and in love, I know that I have friends and I make sure that my friends know they have me. I am trying to get better at telling the people I love that I do love them and telling the people I hate that I don’t.

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