Walking into the office canteen one day, there was this unusual poster. From a distance it became clear it wasn’t the usual values, vision poster on the wall.

“When you get what you want in your struggle for self; And the world makes you king for a day; Just go to the mirror and look at yourself; And see what that man has to say. For it isn’t your father, or mother, or wife whose judgment upon you must pass; the fellow whose verdict counts most in your life; Is the one staring back from the glass.

He’s the fellow to please – never mind all the rest; For he’s with you, clear to the end
And you’ve passed your most difficult, dangerous test; If the man in the glass is your friend.

You may fool the whole world down the pathway of years; And get pats on the back as you pass; But your final reward will be heartache and tears; If you’ve cheated the man in the glass”.

The poster carried these everlasting lines written in 1934 by Peter Dale Wimbrow, famous American writer, and composer. Walking closer, reading twice, the message start sinking in, so is an inner urge to go and look at a mirror and ask the person you see in the mirror, these very same questions.

With that image on the mirror, what you see is also the struggle through the path of life behind to look good on that glass. The need to look good to the world around you is innate in people. People are naturally disposed to imagine how we must appear to others and react to what we feel their judgment of that appearance must be. In the process, we develop our “self” through the judgments of others. As opposed to our own judgment of our “self”. This creates a distance between who you truly are and who you live as to the people around you. In some ways that is the distance between you and your image on the mirror you see. At some point in life, you get initiated into a deeper sense of awareness within yourself that makes you recognize, the existence of this distance between who you truly are as opposed to how you try and appear to others and react to what you feel their judgment of that appearance must be! This recognition has the power to put you on a path to measure how each day you move an inch closer (or away..!) to who you really are. That journey is your experiment with your own truth. Mine with mine. Relative to the truth that you make appear to form your image in others around you.

When our software development center was opened in Bangalore, a similar poster appeared in the men’s restroom. That made the hand-wash space a “pause-point”, to take a deep breath; slow down, ‘un-clutter’ mind momentarily, and read this text, again and again; then go back and look at the mirror one more time and ask: are you truthful to the person who you see for the man who you see on the mirror is your only companion to the very end who you should be truly truthful to. Work in progress!