A Lesson on Integrity from Gandhi

The great leader Gandhi was once approached by a mother who wanted him to have a few words with her son.

The boy was eating too much sugar and it was harming his teeth and diet.

When the mother asked Gandhi to talk to her son he replied, “I cannot tell him that. But you may bring him back in a month.”

Obviously the woman was discouraged because of all the travel involved to see Gandhi and what she felt should have been a simple answer to a simple request to support her parenting skills.

However, one month later she returned with her son.

Gandhi tenderly held the boy’s hands and told him to not eat sugar because it was harmful to his health.

The mother was pleased but perplexed. She asked him why he had not simply said this to the boy a month earlier during her first visit.

Gandhi replied, “Well, a month ago, I was still eating sugar.”

Recommended Reading: Gandhi: An Autobiography, The Story of My Experiments With Truth

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Stephen Palmer is a book writer for mission-driven leaders, a small business lead generation website design architect and persuasive website copywriter, a co-founder of The Center for Social Leadership, and the author of Uncommon Sense: A Common Citizen’s Guide to Rebuilding America.

He co-authored the New York Times bestseller Killing Sacred Cows: Overcoming the Financial Myths that are Destroying Your Prosperity, as well as Hub Mentality: Shifting from Business Transactions to Community Interaction.

He is a liberal-arts graduate of George Wythe University and a graduate and faculty member of the “non-traditional business school” Wizard Academy.

Stephen resides in Round Rock, Texas with his gorgeous wife Karina, awesome son Alex, and princess daughters Libby, Avery, and Laela.

Subscribe to Stephen’s blog and contact him at stephen [at] leadershipwriter [dot] com.