eNewsletter October 2010
Dear Everyone,
Hi! And how are you all? It has been a wonderful month of September because of the Raya festival. I was invited to very many corporate 'open houses' and I had a great time sampling all the wonderful food. I am most certain that I have put on at least 3 kilograms as a result of my unabated eating. Ah! but these are the pleasures of life!!
I recently read this article on the internet about an incident at a golf tournament in the US. Zach Nash is a 14-year-old boy from Wisconsin, USA who recently won a junior Wisconsin PGA golf tournament. Unfortunately later on in the evening when he had already been given the winners prize, he realized that he had violated one of golf's cardinal rules and that is he had more than fourteen golf clubs in his bag (the rules specify that you can only have fourteen or less). It was a total accident as he had inadvertently put a friend's golf club in his bag the previous evening, with the objective of returning the club to his friend at the golf course.
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Carrying an extra club in your golf bag incurs a two stroke penalty per hole, and since Nash did not account for those extra strokes, he was deemed to have signed an incorrect scorecard, the penalty for which is disqualification. Nash did not hesitate. As soon as he realized his mistake, he immediately informed the Wisconsin PGA, explained what had happened and sent back the medal. The organizing committee are now planning to give it to the tournament's runner up.
This to me is honesty and integrity at its highest level. If he had ignored the extra club, no one would have known. After all he had already got the prize and he was now at home. But Nash practiced what is called the 'Will your mother approve of this' concept. This concept states that the test of integrity is to always ask yourself the question, "Will my mother approve of this" before you do anything where there are doubts as to whether it is the correct and right thing to do. If your objective answer is yes, then go ahead and do it and if it is no or unsure, then you should not do it.
Obviously in Nash's case, the answer was no. His mother would have certainly disapproved of it. In that perspective, many of us define integrity in relation to what we do in front of people. My view is that the true test of integrity and honesty is what you do when there is no one around.
My heartfelt congratulations to Nash for standing up and doing the right thing, no matter what the cost. His honor and sense of integrity was more important to him than a prize at a gold tournament. Believe me, he will win golf prizes in the future, but more importantly, he will be a winner in life because he has a trait i.e. honesty, that will be a key factor in deciding how well he does in life.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and I do hope I have made your day today with this little anecdote. May god bless each and everyone of you and till my next newsletter, have a great month ahead.
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