Murphy’s Law.. anything that CAN go wrong, WILL go wrong… followed by Sadie’s corollary: And it will go wrong at the worst possible moment! (“Y’all can’t just lay that out there like dead rat, you gotta tell ’em what happened…” Okay, Mama, give me a minute.. it’s just a little embarrassing…)
Why is it so hard to admit that you have made a mistake? Does it hurt our self-image that we screwed up? Are we afraid people will think less of us if we admit to making a mistake?
So, this is what happened… Late (probably my first mistake) last night, I went to install a new mod on Pistol-Packing-Mama… Get the Spot… a nice way for y’all to get a banner seen right then and there.. in the middle of the surf window!! Got a new program you want to advertise.. awesome.. BAM.. right in everyone’s face as they surf…
In theory, it is an excellent idea… Each member level gets its own special bonus… view someone else’s banner and get the opportunity buy that spot for themselves…
*sigh* In theory.. one puts in the correct numbers and every one is happy… *sigh* So did I do that??? I wish… one upgrade got 150 banners and $150 for viewing a 10 second ad… Did I realize that? NO… I had some one check it to make sure it worked.. it worked but she was NOT the upgrade level with the mistake… So, I blithely went to bed…
Early this morning before church, I hopped on the computer to check and almost fainted with requests for withdrawals of up to $600!!! Yikes!!! I also found a whole bunch of tickets telling me I had screwed up… lol Fortunately there were more tickets than withdrawal requests.
Found my mistake immediately and corrected it.. HOW did I miss an OBVIOUS error last night??? So I answered tickets and requests and took myself off to church. Then afterwards, I spent the afternoon fixing all the errors and apologizing to members. Most all of them laughed with/at me and together we got their accounts back to normal.
I swear if I ever install a new mod at 3 a.m. again, Mama will be beating me with a stick…. (“Y’all gots THAT right, Missy” “Hush, Mama, I didn’t do it on purpose!)
Happily my members are not unhappy with me.. well, except for two I haven’t heard from 
yet… but the rest appreciated my honesty and apology. No one is perfect, they all told me, and mistakes happen… The ancient Romans had a phrase for it… Mea culpa..
Mea culpa, mea culpa… it’s much easier to say the older you get.. lol.. don’t be afraid to do something for fear of making a mistake.. We LEARN from our mistakes and we GROW from our mistakes. Keep learning and keep growing!
So, for now… K.I.S.S… and be good to each other….
Poop happens 🙂
The test of true entrepreneurship excellence is to roll with the punches, take responsibility and move forward.
You are in fantastic company though….Every single entrepreneur I know that has done anything of any significance has messed up!
Think of it like a badge of honor 🙂 lol
Thanks Jon… I have screwed up many times in the past, but NOTHING of this magnitude… I just have to laugh about it now!!
Hi Renee. Try not to worry. I know it’s painful. Yes, we do learn from our mistakes. It’s the best way to learn. We will make them. So don’t be too hard on yourself.
Big hugs.
thanks Barb.. I just always figured when I got to be THIS old, I would stop making mistakes… or at least not such BIG ones… lol
Nah darn it I wish!
LOL
Hi Renee.
Don’t worry about it. Those who can’t understand will eventually see how nice it is to have an honest owner…which is unfortunately getting rare in the TE business. It’ll take more than one mistake to make me change my mind that PPM is the BEST TE available..
Thank you Jerry.. that is sweet of you to say.. You have been a long time member at PPM and it is great to know that I am doing it “right”!
Good Morning Renee,
A few weeks ago I had a member that was auto responding to my member emails and I thought I sent just him an email to turn it off or I would delete his account.
It turns out I accidentally sent the email to the entire membership! I had to send out another email to apologize for my mistake.
The positive side of my mistake was that I found out that many of my members were actually reading my emails. I got several responses from people telling me they were not spamming my emails!
Thank you, Steven!! I was one of those responding.. I was worried that something I had done had some how spammed your email. Your fast response acknowledged your “spam” to all members instead of just one.. and it was just perfect!