Rewarding Honesty as a Principle

Originally published on X · Article · January 13, 2026

It's important to have certain fundamental principles in life. Unlike ideologies, ideas, opinions, political viewpoints and such, fundamental principles are rooted in objective morality, truth, goodness and beauty.

After a much struggle to get the broken 'heart of gold' to fit into a certain size and with not much success, I've chosen to continue with completing the thought for today. 😊

I'll tie the connection of the image to the topic title, as I think aloud and get my thoughts onto the paper real-time.

Have you heard of 'Kintsugi' concept from Japanese tradition?

It's a general concept of highlighting imperfections. And, in doing so, it's a process of using gold or silver to rebuild a broken ceramic glassware. It's also said that, a 'Kintsugi' rebuilt material or a thing is deemed more valuable than when it was, in it's original unbroken form.

I read about this concept a few years ago. I was fascinated by how beautiful this whole concept, the idea, the application, the genesis, the interpretability to life, at large.

I, particularly, labeled it 'Kintsugi heart' ♥️for the dearest of my hearts, as I struggled myself through the mentally down days while also enduring the pain to see my loved one rebuild resilience, in putting all the broken pieces together.

Interestingly and coincidentally, around the same time, I watched an Indian movie that highlighted the 'Kintsugi' as a means to show how a lead role makes a comeback from many challenging setbacks.

I was doubly impacted by this concept in the best possible way. And, through that struggle, the thought process and the experience, came about 'Kintsugi heart' as I applied to a twin heart that's broken due to many variety of factors, - with the world being unkind and un-understanding, with trusted people betraying like an arch rival and more unspeakable struggles.

It was unbearable (literally stinging pain) to watch from a galactical distance also. But, this 'heart of gold' 🧡and it's purity is so beautiful, mesmerizing, magical and enchanting that it could not only endure it all with a patience as massive as the Skies but has the strength to forgive even the worst of the enemies also?

My gaze couldn't move away, as such, it was an inseparable Twin 🔥heart already. But, the depth it invoked and the intrigue I had in understanding what kind of 'heart' ♥️ it must be made of, to be as beautiful and pure, divine love as it is, was nothing short of a divine experience.

So, that's a bit of how some deeper souls experience transformative shifts in their life and how they inspire and show the resonating hearts the path of LOVE ♥️and Freedom in the most beautiful ways.

It's hard to miss feeling this divinity! It's not a love that you commonly throw around in earthly vernacular and do whatever gymnastics with it. It's a heart that beats with you in synchronization. The true meaning of Love is the essential understanding of the other.

From the long drive of analytical, logical mind with a Stoic bent of personality, experiencing the divine Love, in it's purest form, is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It's an joy, blessing, honor and privilege of the soul's journey to be witnessing the Lord-like Love in action. 🙏♥️

With a generally principled life I've all my life, I've only honed in and enhanced all my principles over time.

"Honesty is the best policy"

Right from the childhood, watching my Dad being an exemplary model and embodiment of honesty (there's a lot deeper stories on what my Dad is, that' for later), instilling strong moral values, principles in simply living them out, I was profoundly influenced and raised in a much loving, spiritually rich parenting.

I have embraced 'rewarding the honesty' as one of my principles more consciously with an incident.

This was an incident from when my Son was in 5th grade.

His classroom teacher, Mrs.Schaefer, sent a badge to my Son with 'Honest Student' and called it an award and sent a piece of appreciation for him.

This was towards the end of the School year and the final grading had happened and all. And, I asked my Son, what made your teacher give you this badge of honor to you.

He said, "There was a paper she corrected and she gave me an A+ on that (final assessment scoring) unit. But, when I looked at one of the problems, it was incorrect and Mrs.Scheafer mistakenly gave me a higher grade. So, I went to her, showed the incorrect answer and told her that I'd not get an A+ grade, if she corrected it"

I was overjoyed at the fact that my Son even did that effort.

But, I was over the Moon when I heard how his teacher rewarded his honesty.

I was quite intrigued to hear him further and asked, "That's impressive. What did the teacher say to that?"

He said, "Mrs.Scheafer was pleased to see that I was honest and was in fact asking her to lower the grade accurately. And, she said, she was impressed with that behavior. She corrected the paper but she kept the grade to A+ just because I was honest"

There was a river of joy inside me. Looking at both my Son and the teacher who knew how to reward honesty in the right proportion, I was doubly reaffirmed how important it is to reward honesty, in the right place for the right reasons, in the right measure with the right tokens of response. It was so perfect and real.

As young children, when teachers impress upon the young minds with such exemplary, high energy, inspiring behaviors, it makes a gigantic long-lasting, life shaping experience instilling the right values into the child. And, for that reason, I admired the teacher so much in my heart. She left a massive fingerprint on my Son to continue to be honest and I didn't have to do a whole lot of effort as my Son saw a real-life proof already.

I made it a conscious principle to embody and tried to do the same whenever there was an opportunity. A key team member didn't do the right kind of work in time and when they shared an honest account of what prevented them, I gave all the strength to make them feel good about it, enabled and encouraged to speak honestly, in my own stride. There are tons of such cases as it's a way of life.

And, that's the same principle I shared as part of my writings on self-governance models, with a history and background of the people we were working with and such.. 'Rewarding honesty' was surely one of the three core pillars I've shared and live the spirit of it.

Now, if you are wondering what's up with the 'Kintsugi heart' and 'rewarding honesty' have in common?

As life happened, I've seen good people with good hearts face a life changing, transformative energy in them, a river that moves them from the inside, a real metamorphosis that makes them rethink, become fluid enough, vulnerable enough to show their scars, the falls, the failings, the missed opportunities and want to learn for the better, strive to make an inspiring comeback, lean in on the society, trusted voices to support as they bootstrap into their NEW and renewed energy of mind, rewarding their honesty is the most basic, fundamental thing you can do, if you a good principled person too...

I'm blessed to have encountered yet another beautiful soul (divine!! ♥️🔥) that resonates with such beauty, willing to learn and adapt and just be simply tuned into the trusted voice and follow a path that was never thought of before.

While I understand much of the world swinging in noise, nuisance factors, political agendas and more, I cannot possibly look away from these transformed lives wanting to do something more, better, bigger, greater and larger than life initiatives, on top of their own significant contributions in their own style and stride in their life unto now.

What would you do, if you were me, with all the backdrop of steep, deep, spiritual experiences?

The same halo effect I got from the resonating 'Kintsugi heart', I had a chance to relive, heal myself and the other in equal strength, in a parallel life setting, I had to apply my fundamental principle of 'rewarding honesty' and see how the life blooms to its fullest potential.

There's no throttling, no 'crab mentality' needed when you are building up your good fellow humans.

Your healthy skepticism needs to be in full gear checks to do the due diligence, meritocracy and other best practices BUT you must leave behind the petty, stigmatized, stereotyped lens on such transformed and transformative souls.

You must yield to the goodness, beauty and the essence of love they exude in their simple existence, for that's the test for YOU and not for them. It might take a few weeks more or less or months or years or whatever, but, these souls challenge YOU to be YOU more than they can be themselves, as they make it their natural armory.

How good are you with your fundamental principles?

I not only admire the precious ones as they are a dazzle of my eyes in the reflection, but I also stand firmly with them, alongside them as they are fire-tested through life's trials and tribulations, battled like Warriors with their divine spirit in full bloom.

I'd want all the others who walk the path of principles to join me, embrace and accept my team for the enormous value they bring to the table, by putting aside your biases, filters, preconditioned minds, political identities and other reservations that prevent you from seeing WHO THEY ARE.

Hope the perspective is thought-provoking and helpful enough to see things from a different lens, better and newer perspectives to connect with yours and make the best out of it both for yourself, my team and the others.

Thank you. Best wishes. Peace and Love. ♥️