On the flight back from Riyadh this evening, Fabien commented: “the world today….. people want people who are successful to fail…”
and he mentioned several examples within our own little world… old friends, staff, etc…
My previous boss once laughed at my genuiness/naivity …. he said, “people envy your success — and they don’t give a damn about you…they want you to fail….”
He was not talking about me in particular, but successful people in general….
Because of our ambition events press releases and newsletters announcing updates and changes, this blog has picked up an additional 800+ new readers in the UK…
Furthermore, this weekend and today we had more people register for a UK race in a two day period than we had over a couple of months - I assume this sudden increase suggests that people are interested in seeing if the new ambition events team is for real or not.
A journalist from a major running publication contacted Gary today to discuss interviewing me — they liked my quick, aggressive response due to what I considered a mediocre event -the major focus of the story is going to be “a ceo that does not hide when there is trouble….”
I have re-woken our ambition events division and I am confident in Terry, Gary and the team going forward.
However ….
(in my life there always seems to be a “however” ……………)
There is someone who once worked for naseba, posting extremely negative comments filled with lies onto various running forums, with the sole purpose of trying to hurt naseba’s reputation.
Just to explain…..
…. the ultimate example of someone who is failing in his own life — but instead of focusing on fixing his own mess, he hopes and hopes and hopes that I and naseba fail.
18 months ago, I employed a talented sales man….sharp, good looking guy…. brilliant sales talent….a “loyal ex-staff.”
unfortunately, he has a major drinking problem that he can no longer control.
One day, his GM called me and said that we needed to get this guy help because he was completely passed out in the company apartment.
Please note: I am not sharing anything that is confidential or secret because most people that work at naseba in Dubai know this story because of the people who this person lived with him in the co. apartment….all work at naseba. For those that do not know this person, note that I am not mentioning his name.
anyways….
Stupidly, naively…. I spent half my day getting a hold of his parents in america - and ensuring the guy got proper help.
Before this “loyal ex-staff” flew to america to enter his treatment - he asked me “do you promise you will hire me back after I am well?” and I agreed.
2-3 months later…..
When this “loyal ex-staff” was preparing to get out of his program and join naseba again — probably just to look cool, he sent a few emails to a couple of his friends at naseba — and in each email he spoke very poorly about me and naseba….the last negative comment was “I will come back to make some cash, but leave after a couple months.”
…. of course, after reading his emails, I decided not to re-hire him back.
When I didn’t rehire him back to the company, this “loyal ex-staff” completely “flipped “and sent me 47 emails in one day telling all sorts of crazy things. He said that he was going to do everything in his power to hurt naseba …..
blah blah blah….
I chuckle as I type thinking about how there is no way …. no way….my previous boss would have ever put himself in a situation where this would happen to him. There is no way he would have allowed someone that only causes trouble to get so close to him, like I did with this “loyal ex-staff.”
“Stalker” …..
there is really no other word for what has happened/is happening to me. over the past year …. I have a “stalker…” who lives in London.
This “loyal ex-staff” sent me so many emails that I have had to block him on our servers from emailing me …. I erase without opening any email I receive from him in my hotmail…our marketing team gets all comments to this blog and only fwd’s me ones which are positive and add value …(he was posting super negative comments using other people’s names.)
But the best of all ….
Two days ago, a friend of mine who owns a portal and ultramarathon website which also has a forum where people can chat about whatever they want….all the people in the forum are ultramarathon runners…..
This friend who owns the site, emailed me telling me about an odd, new registration and extremely negative comment about me and ambiton events that was posted on his forum, part of his portal…..
at first I laughed it off and said I didnt care….. but when he mentioned the name used to register which is the name of a good friend of mine, I knew who it was.
Instantly, after seeing the IP it was from (same easynet cafe location as comments posted, as well as the terrible spelling and aggressive-negative comments, a couple of them were direct verbadim comments in emails sent to me by this person) My marketing team and I knew for certain that the negative comments about naseba/ambition events were posted by …… my “loyal ex-staff….”
Our marketing manager researched today other running forum sites to see if he put up other lies ….
She discovered 3 other ultramarathon forum sites this person had registered and left a negative comments and lies about ambition events ….
Readers…..can you imagine wasting your time researching and then registering to a forum that you have no vested interest in — but you still waste your life/time to research it and register…. for the only purpose, to leave a negative comment and lie about something or someone ??????
(it takes at least 30-45 minutes to register to my friends site)
What a complete waste of time.
This “loyal ex-staff” reads this blog every day …. and it is ridiculous that he is obviously, gaining nothing from it - yet he still reads daily. Why?
Even the guy who stole from me, the sri lankan thief at jacob fleming….he is making his life happen. My buddy Lakshimi…. he is focused and working hard.
Whether I like these two guys or not — I respect the fact they are making their lives happen and are not playing the “victim.”
I can not imagine …. wasting my time googling “ultramarathon forums” and then wasting more of my time registering to each site just to post something negative…(especially since all this was done thursday and friday, work days)
Fabien laughed hysterically at me repeating the conversation I had with my previous boss about people wanting successful people to fail…. and we discussed how naive we once were.
As Fabien said, we see so clearly what our previous boss was talking about.
No matter how much someone might want one to fail; no matter how much someone focuses and wastes their time on “hope….ing” for the failure of another ….
In reality, the only person who can make us fail is…
ourselves.
2 Responses to “ode to Marcus Evans IV…”
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May 14th, 2008 at 11:12 am
the srilankan thief - skills are better than the down town picpocket in jaffna
the baby laxmi - aims to become the biggest “bad-mouthing magnate”
and now… the blogger stalker - belives negative blogging will help pay for his sordid life
I think its time you discuss about the diificulties in being a successful leader by making the right decisions and chocies without bringing emotions in play.
Its clear that these ex-employees are the highly emotional type who feel the world is against them when their stint in an organisation doesn’t workout to their desires. Thats when the hatred/badmouthing/deceit starts. Too emotional and unwilling to face consequnces and circumstances resulting in cheating and the whole behavioural spectrum of ill heartedness.
May 14th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
dhs - gave me a great blog theme for the next one -
(response to a comment that we did not approve to post from reginna) good point and well understood - thanks