Something I thought I had definitely learned was that the Internet is very efficient at exposing the mistakes of others to us. I always knew that you can't unsee something and as well you can't unsay words once you've said them. And you can't unwrite something once the person you've hurt has seen it.
As long as I have been blogging, I've always been mindful about the possibilities of hurting people with my words. I always tried to avoid writing when I was frustrated with friends, family, colleagues, etc. I'd done a good job monitoring myself until recently.
I've been in business for myself approximately two years now. My results have been less-than-stellar, mostly because of my own shortcomings. To say there have been failures and frustrations along the way would be more than an understatement. I've sought out experts from every walk of life, both in the fields I'm in as well as so-called social media "experts. One I grew to admire suggested that every self-employed business person keep a diary of day-to-day activities, in order to have a record with which to hold oneself accountable. Seeing as how nearly every aspect of my life is either web-based, data-based and computer based, it seemed a perfect fit to create my diary online.
And as I considered myself an "expert" when it came to these forms of communication, I thought I would have firm control over the privacy of those thoughts. I would vent my frustrations, list my mistakes, all with the purpose of learning from them, and make myself not only a better businessman, I'd emerge a better person as well.
(See introductory paragraph)Well I wasn't as smart as I thought.
I hurt a friend with my words in my private diary. This shouldn't have happened because 1. I should have double-checked my privacy settings and 2. I should have never said the words in the first place. If you don't want something heard, don't ever say it, right?
Well, I have learned my lesson, but at the expense of someone else's feelings. It's too late to take the words back, but I hope it's never too late to apologize for hurting another.
From this day on, this blog will be used solely for the purpose it was intended. To make silly fun of things as I see them, and never be hurtful in the process. While this is, and will be treated as a private matter between the person I hurt and me, I speak openly about the subject because I want to remind you that the internet holds no secrets, and if you don't want to hurt someone, don't say or write the words that can do it to them.
I will be revamping this blog from the top down and bring it back to being somewhere fun to read. That will be happening as soon as I make my apology to that person, and hopefully it is something that will fade in time.
I hope you will read one more drab entry beyond this one, and then join me when I relaunch the Blog.
And to my friend, I apologize here, first. A phone call will follow.
I'm sorry.
