"Don't eat sugar"

I came across an interesting blog this morning by a leadership expert named Michael Rogers.  The story involves Mahatma Gandhi and takes place in the early 1930's.  Apparently, a young mother was trying to convince her son not to eat so much sugar.  The boy had become obsessed with eating sugar, and his mother had tried everything to get him to stop.  She decided to take a long journey walking under the scorching hot Indian sun to visit the leader, Mahatma Gandhi.  She asked Gandhi to tell her son to stop eating sugar.  Perhaps the boy would listen to this great man. 

Gandhi replied, "Woman, I cannot tell him that.  But you may bring him back in a few weeks and then I will talk to him."

The woman was incensed.  She had traveled so long and so far to see Gandhi.  Not only did he refuse to comply with her simple request, but he had asked her to come back in a few weeks!  She took the boy back home. 

The woman continued to tell her son to stop eating sugar, but he just would not listen.  "If only Gandhi had told him to stop eating sugar," she thought to herself. 

She decided it was worth another try, so she again took the long journey and returned to Gandhi after two week.  This time, Gandhi smiled at the woman and looked directly at the boy and said, "Boy, you should stop eating sugar.  It is not good for your health."  The boy nodded his head and promised that he would stop eating sugar.

The woman did not understand.  Why couldn't Gandhi have said this two weeks earlier, for it would have saved her another trip.  She asked him why he could not tell the boy to stop eating sugar two weeks ago. 

Gandhi replied, "Mother, two weeks ago I was eating a lot of sugar myself."

The moral of the story here is clear, "Lead by example."  One of my mentors once told me, "I will never ask others to do something that I am not willing to do myself."  In this story, Gandhi felt that he could not, in good faith, tell the boy to stop eating sugar until he had stopped eating sugar himself.  If he was not willing to stop, then how could he have expected (or even asked) the boy to stop?  He asked the woman to return after he himself had stopped eating sugar.  Then and only then did he feel comfortable asking the boy to do so. 

Lead by example - don't eat sugar.