I came to Bombay when I was about 21 years old. I remember travelling with my dad along the Western Express highway, passing all the shops that sold marble and granite. My dad once asked me if I knew how to determine what was authentic marble and what was not. I confessed that I didn't. He smiled and said; "You will know good authentic marble by its faults." The pun was intended, I think, at that time to make sure that I understood.
But today, I thought that it was a good metaphor for our own lives. When you look at synthetic marble, you see that it has no faults or imperfections; yet it doesn't last. But true marble comes with its fault lines and lasts a long, long time. The same can be applied to our own lives – when we allow our faults and imperfections to be shown, our authenticity allows us to connect with people at a much better and efficient level.
Ron Carlucci wrote an article just a few days back published in Harvard Business Review and he says, "A leader's greatest source of credibility is, ironically, their vulnerability. Owning imperfections wins trust; hiding them doesn't." Why then is it that we hide our imperfections? Why is it that we cannot allow people to see us as we really are, to understand that we are human after all? Why this desire to cover up and seem to be perfect in every thing that we do?
