We always try to help our friends when they come to us with marital struggles, and sometimes we are really helpful, but I thought a proactive approach would be even better.

I guess I am trying to lead by example, in hopes that others may start to think of their relationships, and how they can be even better. I wish to inspire others to share their love with their spouses and loved ones, and never wait for a better time.

… Read this story at aWebGuy.com

Suture Express Apologetic Under Distress

Suture Express CFO, Brian Forsythe learned a difficult and avoidable lesson of breaking trust and giving a self-serving and money-induced apology instead of a timely and meaningful one. Apology for doing wrong is extremely important, but when it is for the wrong reason and postponed until necessitated by greed, it can cause a backlash … a very ugly backlash.

Suture Express Before the Lie

Brian Forsythe came to me as his friend, and as an accomplished web programmer, when Suture Express was in need of a moderately complex ecommerce website that would allow them to offer different prices for each customer. He outlined Suture Express’ needs and I provided an extremely low quotation of $35,000 for the work. Suture Express CEO, Ed Kuklenski purportedly had a friend who claimed would do it for under $5,000 so they contracted with that company to do the job. According to Brian Forsythe, after they spent $150,000 on the website that was to have cost $5,000, they knew Suture Express’ Ed Kuklenski had made a mistake. All of the sudden, my $35,000 fixed quotation was starting to seem like a good bargain … but not good enough just yet.

About a year later, when they found the Suture Express website failing miserably and receiving complaints from customers, they remembered to contact me in order to fix it. I was approached to produce a plan for fixing the existing problems and to provide marketing consultation to increase the website traffic and improve their branding. I spent valuable time working with the Suture Express executive team, and primarily Brian Forsythe, to develop a good plan to improve their marketing and technology. It appeared that I would finally get to help my friend, Brian, to build Suture Express’ business online.

Suture Express Lies

When Suture Express’ CFO, Brian Forsythe contracted with my company to fix the failing website, it all looked good at first. He signed a contract, and said the check was sent, so we moved forward with our work accordingly. Time passed, and the check from Suture Express never arrived. It was a lie, and Forsythe later admitted to his lie. This incident was described at greater length in a widely circulated article titled “Suture Express CFO Brian Forsythe Screws Wrong SEO“. A lie from a top executive of Suture Express is bad, but it was made even worse with an induced apology and an unreasonable bid to hide the truth of their misdealing.

Suture Express CFO Bids to Hide Truth

Less than a week ago, Brian Forsythe called me on the telephone and asked if I would meet with him. I said I would, and he asked if I could meet right away. In fact, he asked if I could meet that evening, only a few hours away. I told him I would, and so he drove to my town and we met over beers … for nine hours, until after three in the morning. We talked about a lot of things (obviously). He was profoundly apologetic, and asked me what Suture Express could do to make things right with me. We talked about business strategy for Suture Express, and things which had transpired. He told me that he would very much like to work with me to build their online presence and to make good for his lies and deceit.

Brian was very convincing in his apology, but yet, it had come swiftly on the tail of business consultants Suture Express had hired seeking to improve the value of Suture Express. It was made even more obvious by the influx of web traffic to my previous blog article about Suture Express from investment firms and law firms. It began to look pretty obvious how desperate Forsythe was in his apology when he made an offer to pay for the removal of the article. It is quite visible to the public, and all of the sudden Suture Express’ reputation mattered. He clearly wanted it to be gone, but he offered to pay only a fraction of what Suture Express was previously to pay for fixing the work of Ed Kuklenski. Then, to make it worse, they sent me a draft of a contract that they would like for me to present to them which stated that any derogatory statements from me would allow them to receive $150,000 from me per incident. Apparently that is where they valued a negative statement from me. They actually want to claim $150,000 for any instance of me telling the disparaging truth about what happened. At the same time, they wanted to pay me a fraction of what it was to have cost them to avoid the negative statement of truth about Suture Express in the first place … yes, and actually receive beneficial reputation management and valuable branding services. So if my truth hurts them by $150,000, but they want to pay me only $10,000 to hide my truth, it seems to me that Suture Express is trying to profit from negative attention with this proposed contract.

Suture Express Reputation Needs Help

Suture Express is clearly aware that their reputation matters. Otherwise Chief Financial Officer Brian Forsythe would not have come to me with his urgent plea. At the same time, it should be considered why Suture Express never found enough cause to apologize to me for the lies during the period of over a year before the article was published, nor for months after the article was reviewed and addressed by some of their staff. I never even heard from them after Suture Express employees and former contractors came forward to share their disgust of the treatment I had received.

It seems like a good lesson for taking timely action when doing wrong to others. In the case of Suture Express, it was only under scrutiny of others and with no reason beyond serving their own purpose, that they finally came to me with urgency to renounce the truth I had told about them. The apologies and near-convincingly sincere plea to work with Suture Express toward a resolution came only when there was enough financial loss or gain in the balance that they could no longer hold back their shame and just had to make apology. If you think this is pretty dirty, I agree with you. Apology forced by greed and that only serves the person giving the apology is not very genuine.

It gets much worse, and it is still unfolding in the active “Suture Express CFO Brian Forsythe Screws Wrong SEO” blog post.

The lesson to be heard is that giving apology should never be postponed until it only serves you. Give your apology sincerely and promptly if you want it to matter. Otherwise, it will cost you a lot more grief, and in business it will likely cost you a lot more money, too.

Please take a moment to hear a story of how a Christmas tree can change your outlook and reduce some holiday stress.

This is a story from my family that shows the importance of sharing joy with others and making the decision to enjoy life now, and not only when everything is “perfect”.

I watched this video of USA for Africa “We Are the World” and was very touched to recall the massive efforts given at the time it was made. It made me question what it takes to bring forth such an effort in reaching the hearts of the world and remind others to uncover their emotions and be more caring.

We can each receive great value by giving and caring. Be reminded that the giver receives great benefit along with the recipient.

Please take a break to enjoy a moment in time of caring and be reminded to be good to others more now than ever.

Living in the Storm is Available for Order!

Living in the Storm is available for order at Amazon.com, Create Space (an Amazon.com company) and also direct from the author using PayPal. The advantage of ordering direct is that shipping is included in the $9.95 price! Living in the Storm will also be available through other retailers soon.

ORDER NOW!

Before you neglect to honor and be thankful for those people who have served to uphold your standards and battled for your benefit, be reminded that without veterans we would live in a far more frightening world. That world would include slavery of many people worldwide, killing of entire races, unchecked religious persecution, and tolerance of things that only the vilest individuals could imagine.

If we had a perfect world, there would be no need for warriors or fighting. This is a great goal to live for and work toward. In the meantime, we have veterans. So, regardless how you have benefited from the hard work and security granted by those who have put their dedication into action and laid their lives on the line for you, I hope that you will take a moment to give compassion and honor to those many men and women who care enough about you to give everything.

They are working for you right now.

If you would like to honor a veteran, I welcome your comments here. I will share your comments with soldiers working hard today and let them know we appreciate them.

When this happens, it is time to reflect on the reasons you tried in the first place. Evaluate the joy you expect to find when you succeed. Perhaps most importantly, it is time to learn to enjoy the process and not just the outcome.

Begin again today! Take a moment to refresh your goals by focusing on the small achievements you have made along the way. This will help you to enjoy the storm that is life and not just push through it to get to the sunshine tomorrow.

Setting out to achieve any goal will come with sacrifice. You knew it when you set the first goal, and after some failure, you know the sacrifice better than ever. If you take the care to revel in your small achievements along the way, the sacrifice will get easier all the time.

Living in the Storm is Available for Order!

Living in the Storm is available for order at Amazon.com, Create Space (an Amazon.com company) and also direct from the author using PayPal. The advantage of ordering direct is that shipping is included in the $9.95 price! Living in the Storm will also be available through other retailers soon.

ORDER NOW!

“I should exclaim that my latest book release has helped millions of people to enjoy a happier life … Well, not millions yet … but it will.”

Well, of course it has not helped millions of people yet. I just released the book! That is the good part. “Yet” means that it will, and without that attitude, it would surely help far fewer people.

Just think for a moment about how a similar attitude of reaching into your future with definitive goals and an outlook of possibility rather than blurred consciousness and pre-defeated hopes could feel good today, and not just once the goals are achieved.

Even the greatest optimist has hesitation and shortcomings. Why do we hesitate to look at the optimistic side of life? This has a lot to do with influences we have taken throughout our life, and throughout our day. Many people around you will caution you “for your own good”, or for their own selfishness. People often find more negative influences in life as they become adults, with fewer positive influences than as a child. Whatever the causes that influence you, there are solutions within you. You must reach for them, and sometimes it takes a map to find the way. I hope you will enjoy this map I offer.

Living in the Storm is Available for Order!

Living in the Storm is available for order at Amazon.com, Create Space (an Amazon.com company) and also direct from the author using PayPal. The advantage of ordering direct is that shipping is included in the $9.95 price! Living in the Storm will also be available through other retailers soon.

ORDER NOW!

They are only words, but it comes all too often that they are easy to take to heart. Don’t do it! Do not buy into other’s hate. Remember that they only use mean words because they cannot find a better way to hurt you or steal your hopes. They are the weak ones seeking an upper hand in any way they can find it, and hurting you is proof that they can beat you.

If you find that you are more offended by words like jerk, creep, fag, queer, dummy, shorty, fatass, idiot, moron, nigger, chink, coolie, gook, wap, spic, beaner, hymie, kike, bog, or others, than you are inspired to overcome and conquer these despicable standards of hatred and demoralization, then you may as well accept them. When you accept the values of hatred and anger into your life, then you are diminishing your potential and being a victim. Many of the greatest leaders and admired people of all time heard these words of hatred and many more. Did it hurt them? Sure, it probably did for a while, but then they made a decision to overcome the anger and pain.

Take a minute and think of the worst things people have ever said to you. Get upset, be absolutely furious, and cry if you need to. Then, when you are done feeling whatever it is that you have to get out, make a decision that from this day forward you will not hear these things. Let there be no concern for retaliation, no revenge, no anger, nothing! Let them say what they will. They are now the weaker ones. You have taken away their power, and you are the one who will win!

Living in the Storm is Available for Order!

Living in the Storm is available for order at Amazon.com, Create Space (an Amazon.com company) and also direct from the author using PayPal. The advantage of ordering direct is that shipping is included in the $9.95 price! Living in the Storm will also be available through other retailers soon.

ORDER NOW!

Immediately after the show, I will visit Hastings and enjoy their coffee shop. I plan to be there by 10 a.m., so if you can make it to Hastings either from 10-11 a.m. or from 5-7 p.m., I would like to meet you.

I will also have copies of my recent release “Twitter for Business: Twitter for Friends“, and answer questions about any of my three book releases for 2009.

This is the introduction to “Diary of Betterment” which is the companion book to “Living in the Storm”. Please provide me with your feedback. Your comments mean a lot to me.

Introduction:

I want to keep this simple. Making a better life is not as hard as it looks. When you break it all down, a great life is really not so complicated at all. You can do this!

You can probably think of a dozen things right now that would make your life better and a dozen more ways you can achieve those things. A challenge that exists is in taking inventory and becoming more cognizant of these things on a daily basis. Life is busy, and many things get in the way of a better life. The biggest obstacle is you.

It is common to look at life as one huge picture, and that is often how we have been trained. We learn that if you look at the big picture, the little things do not matter so much. This is a way that people can feel better about temporary challenges in life. Ironically, without those little things, there is no picture at all. The truth is that the little things matter and they matter a lot.

When it starts to look cloudy, it is often important to break life down into smaller manageable pieces in order to sort it out and see things clearer again. Managing small improvements and working toward a long-term outlook not only helps you long-term, but it can help you today, too!

“Diary of Betterment” is your personal documentation of improvements to relationships, how you influence those relationships, and for creating and reaching goals. This book was developed as a companion to “Living in the Storm” and is intended to help you document and score progress as you make your way in the storm we call life.

This book contains action steps based on the book, “Living in the Storm” and outlines many of the principles included therein. It also provides supplemental information for defining, monitoring, and achieving your goal of enjoying life.

You may use this book individually, but if you have not yet read “Living in the Storm”, it is highly recommended in order to receive maximal benefit.

I cannot save you from all of the challenges in your life, but I can offer you a tool to help you work through them and to gain clarity through cognizance. When you pay closer attention to your life, you become much closer to the life that you want, and that you deserve.

If you think you are not up to the challenges of overcoming life’s obstacles and using them for benefit, you are probably right. Most people will never take the needed steps or make the best decisions. Why should you change the wind?

If you think it is time to turn the page and take steps to make improvements in your life and in the life of those around you, you are probably right. Turn the page, and let’s get started!