I need to get something off my chest.
I have enormous respect for Ardath Albee of Marketing Interactions, as one of the top experts 
in B2B marketing on Earth. Unfortunately, the feeling is not mutual. She accused me of heinous acts, like excessive self-promotion, using content for personal gain and plagiarism.
I’m deeply sorry, Ardath. I really blew it with you. As much as I would love to get a do-over, it’s not possible. One cannot change the past. But I can look for root causes (and not just symptoms) to try to prevent them in the future.
One of the biggest mistakes I made in the past is assumptions. For instance, I look at a piece of content - it is so familiar to me that I assume it is not proprietary. That certainly made an “ass out of me.” Trying to explain my logic to an upset person was a disaster.
The simple and best thing to do would be to reach out to the author in advance and confirm my assumption. That was a huge mistake I made with Ardath - I did not reach out. I deeply regret that failure of mine.
I learned. For instance, after I blew it with Ardath, I wanted to write a blog post based on the book Made to Stick. I contacted New York Times best-selling authors Dan and Chip Heath and asked for permission to use their content.. They gave me the green light in writing to use it. No problem whatsoever. Since then, this is the approach I have used. I learned and adapted.
Had I taken that simple step with Ardath, many problems would have been avoided. But I failed to do so.
Since that fiasco, I’ve worked very hard to be a model corporate citizen and do the right thing all the time.
I’m sorry, Ardath. Truly and deeply. Even if this is not recoverable, I want you to know how sorry I truly am.
Jeff Ogden
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Jeff Ogden