Out Of The Frying Pan…And Into The Fire
Call me a gluten for punishment – a dreamer – what ever you choose it doesn’t matter. To think that I could actually change someone’s ideas or behavior is a pipe dream. People will do, say, and think what they please and there isn’t a blessed thing I can do about it. The responsibility to change is entirely up to them.
I spent the last week “calling out” my favorite critic and pointing out several errors in judgment, thinking, and perspective to help others see how irrational and self absorbed this individual is. While Tuesday was good, Thursday once again called out one of the most obnoxious critics of YTB for various abuses against the company and it’s people. In the article, I pointed out several glaring mistakes and flat out lies. As expected, no comments, no apologies, not a peep about the documentation provided which questioned it’s credibility.
Until yesterday.
I commented in Thursday’s article that if you don’t like the heat, you need to stay out of the kitchen. If you want to play in the YTB kitchen, every attempt is made to throw you from the frying pan into the fire. If it’s me, there’s a huge reward for anything negative that can be dug up in an attempt to get back at all the times I’ve been able to correct and document the lies and misinformation posted on the internet. And mark my words, they will find it and they will ride it for all it’s worth.
I’ve done a lot of writing in the last few years. I’ve not only written here, but have been paid to write several other articles, and also write for the Examiner as the Atlanta Family Travel Examiner. People happen to like my style and ability to communicate. So much so, that I often find others who use my work.
I do several posts a week on the Examiner, including Georgia Curiosities, Sunday Saver, and Thursday Travel Tips. I got the idea for Thursday Travel Tips from a weekly e-mail I receive who I also happen to contract with to write articles and publications. Because my information is used without my name (known as a “ghost writer”) I asked if I could use these travel tips for my Examiner page.
The group of writers I’ve come to know I have no problem with sharing information as an unknown. Yesterday however, I found out that the e-mails I had been using…had been lifted from various published sources on the internet, some dating back as early as 2000. Meaning, that what I was using was plagiarized and therefore put both myself and the Examiner at risk.
OUCH!
I can’t reason why, nor do I have any excuse for not checking to verify if there was another source before I posted these articles. As I am finding out from several of these “tips” that many were simply lifted from the web to be used in the e-mails that arrived in my inbox.
Because critics watch every move I make, they have kept a close eye on my Examiner page. (Just like the obsession they have with my with my blog and my newsletter.) One of the readers on Examiner commented and documented an original source of the article I posted on Thursday. A link was provided and when opened to my horror, there was the same article I had just published as my own.
As a result, it proved to be just what the critics needed to throw your truly from the frying pan into the fire. A lengthy post was written calling me out, and demands for answers proceeded to fill the comment section on the blog and various other places on the internet.
What I offered up in return was an apology, and a correction to the gross error that was found.
I also offered up the same to the management of Examiner who had also sent me notice of the finding. While one was corrected on my behalf, the other two that were found were simply deleted last evening out of my own disgust and embarrassment over what had happened. I subsequently will be checking for snippets of a “source” for all of my Thursday Travel Tips over the next few days to correct any further glaring mistakes and carelessness on my part. What happened was wrong and it needs to be corrected.
Fortunately, management of the Examiner appear to have handled this situation in a professional and respectable manor. I wish I could say the same for the critics. If anyone thinks an apology and agreement to correct my mistake would calm my critics…you’re dreamin.
My glaring error was just the ticket to feed the huge fireball of resentment and anger towards me all over the internet. I have been a huge thorn in thier side for years and this finding was just what they needed to get back at me for all the times I’ve documented, corrected, and embarrassed them with what’s been written here. And boy have they had their fill of it!
I’ve always said actions speak louder than words and what we have another lesson in how behavior can be very telling.
As a result of my new found error, John’s claim that no one at Carlson Wagonlit has any record of Candi May is now justified a year later, and he’s once again able to stand tall in his assertion. In addition, the class action that was later dubbed an ungainly monster of 39 pages containing 133 paragraphs is once again deemed “powerful”.
What they found was a doozy, I have to admit. How quickly it turned the tables to take the focus off themselves and throw it right back on me.
All the while, this whole charade of bantering back and forth has gone on for almost two years now without any resolution. It’s never been about correcting, resolving, or coming to terms with our critics. It’s always been about someone else being wrong and them being right. And because my wrong points a very large finger at me, all the critics now somehow feel justified in their own actions over the years for any wrongs that may have been documented here.
Me? I’ll swallow my pride here and admit the gross error out in the open, and hopefully learn a very valuable lesson. In addition, I’m reminded of a prayer I use to use when I first sobered up some 20 years ago.
Grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change.
The courage to change the things I can.
And the wisdom to know the difference.
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August 8th, 2009 at 11:33 am
I applaud you Doug for having the character enough to own up to your mistake without excuse. That is far beyond your critic’s mode of operation and I am sure that is another thorn in their flesh (although they wouldn’t have the character to admit that either).
They don’t admit mistakes without having to throw a “but” in there and referring back to something besides themselves. You are right on when you say it’s about being “right” for them. One of my mentors says that the #1 addiction in the world is being “right”. Couple that on top of John’s addiction to YTB……and you have something that most psychologists would refer to a specialist.
Seems I recall a time when John posted a blog stating that CLIA was in bed with YTB. When John was taken to task about it by Mr. Smith….John just changed the blog entry and said it never happened. I seem to recall he changed the actual entry and then through a “but” in there to once again take the focus off of himself. I think one of the people on his blog nailed it the other day when they said (and so did you) that as long as he can keep the focus on someone else he doesn’t have to face himself. I am sure that is a deep, dark, and scary place for him.
One of the things about our business model that far exceeds anything the critics will ever be able to accomplish in their current ways of thinking is that they are actually dealing with real PEOPLE! People that have families, rights, opinions, feelings, and so on. I feel that when it comes to their addictions to being “right” they totally miss that they themselves are really no different. When they call people “wastes of skin” they, in fact, are saying more about themselves on a deeper level than they are about the person they are attacking. The people in our business model are taught to actually CARE for others on a deeper level than that of just a superficial customer. Those that can’t fail in our model. You critics, Doug, wouldn’t have a chance. And if they can’t do it then it must be flawed!
Again, I appreciate your character. Stay in the kitchen brother!
August 8th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
Doug,
I remember a story about John F. Kennedy and The Bay of Pigs and the unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. Eisenhower planned it, but Kennedy executed it.
When it failed, Kennedy went in front of the Nation and said, “It was my fault and I take complete responsibility.”
Because he took responsibility it lead his overwhelming popularity.
I’ve read some of the comments and chastising over your error. (YIKES!) While some will claim that it has taken you down a notch, I think your actions elevate you to new heights when you look at how you’ve responded to wrongs and John has ignored his. It shows leadership and character most have come to know you for.
August 8th, 2009 at 11:58 pm
“Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain but it takes character and self control to be understanding and forgiving.”
~ Dale Carnegie
“One mustn’t criticize other people on grounds where he can’t stand perpendicular himself”
~ Mark Twain
“A critic is someone who never actually goes to the battle, yet who afterwards comes out shooting the wounded”
~ Tyne Daly
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”
~ Theodore Roosevelt
November 25th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
[...] About 2 months ago I made a choice to put the YTB critics on ignore. I quit reading the garbage and trash talk because the practice had broken through responsible and respectable social norms. The ideas and perspective of this small group had never matched my own experience or knowledge obtained from more reliable and unbiased sources. Furthermore, throughout this last year others who were exposed to the tactics labeled their activity as “redundant, immaterial, impertinent, or scandalous matter” while another outside source called the emotional outbursts a “bizarre and complete waste of time“. [...]