What do you do when you mess up…publically?
No matter how hard I try, I make mistakes. And when it happens on the Internet, it’s out there for everyone to see.
It happened the other day. I used a picture that belonged to someone else. I found it on a site where the copyright had been removed. It happened more than a year ago. The owner sent a tweet and asked me to remove the image. By the time I saw the message, several other folks chimed in and advocated increasing levels of punishment. I felt like the Internet version of a mass murderer.
Now what?
It’s tempting to get defensive. I didn’t make any money, the source didn’t contain a copyright notice, yadda, yadda. But none of that matters.
The simple fact is, I was wrong. I immediately replied, apologized, and offered to remove the image. I’m grateful for the grace demonstrated by the owner of the image.
When you’re wrong, I think that’s all you can do. Admit your error, apologize sincerely, and offer to fix the problem if possible.
Learn from your mistake, do what you can to avoid repeating it.
And then you need to get back to work. You need to ignore the critics who are eager to snipe from the sidelines and tear down the good you’re trying to do.
If you’re doing important work, you take risks. As far as I can tell, Jesus was the only person who lived mistake-free. The rest of us need to learn to apologize and move on.