Many of you asked me to update you on the outcome from my post: copyright, bullshit, and good manners, whereby I explained the kooky-litigious letter I received from the Strategic Coach, Inc. intellectual property lady, asking me to remove my article that extolled the values of Dan Sullivan‘s Entrepreneurial Time Management system.

Well, I heard from them, pronto ronto. And the response was impressively clear, direct, and believably sincere. An excerpt:

“Yikes, we certainly messed up on this one! I just read your blog post, “copyright, bullshit, and good manners,” forwarded to us by one of our clients. I have to say I felt queasy reading it because your comments are right on the mark and these are things we know well. Before going any further, I want to say what should have been said in the first place: Thank you for the wonderful and entertaining post you wrote on “entrepreneurial time management: how i rock it”! We really appreciate you sharing your experience with this concept and how it’s helped you, and especially linking back to the original source on our website and providing proper attribution.”

When you screw up: tell the truth and tell it fast.

Go direct. Admit to your faux pas poo poo and lay on the goodness. The entire letter was clear and thoughtful, they sent me a copy of The Dan Sullivan Question: Ask it and transform anyone’s life. Flowers would have been nice, but books are good.

Even in between the first weird/nasty letter arrived and the nice follow up mea culpa letter from the bigger boss lady, I continued to tell my Fire Starter clients who asked about productivity tricks about Dan’s Entrepreneurial Time Management System. A good product is a good product. Even smart companies make stupid mistakes. As my friend Donna says, “We’re just all bozos on the same bus.” Any good coach will tell you that.

With Love,