In Friday’s post, I talked about the many benefits of getting around the top people in your field or industry.  Mostly, I was discussing taking advice from these people as opposed to people who have no clue about you or your business. 

As a result of merely mentioning his name, Alan Weiss posted a comment on that article.  Can you believe that?  The man who is possibly the highest paid consultant in the world posted a comment on my site!  I was so stoked!

I ended up on Alan’s site for a few minutes and came across an article titled, Non-Intellectual Non-Property.  If you’re a consultant or speaker, you really should read it.  At the end, I wanted to post a comment saying simply, “AMEN, BROTHER!”  But I’d lost the internet connection I’d hacked into while sitting outside a church waiting for my husband to practice with his praise band.  So—

I did what any decent blogger would do and have written my own article instead.  For those of you who are too lazy to click over there and read the article in full, (this would be the consultants – for whom the article is primarily targeted), Alan is essentially pointing out that one should not plagiarize another’s material.  This is getting to be an issue in both the speaking and consulting industries.  I agree with Alan 100% and just want to add my own experiences to the docket.

Brian Tracy actually told me I could use his stuff.  I’m paraphrasing here based on memory, but his words went something like this:  “A lot of people are all about, ‘mine, mine, mine,’ but I’m not like that.  If you hear something today that would help your audiences, take it and use it.  There’s some good stuff here and it can really make a difference in people’s lives.”

I thought, “Wow!  What a great guy – he’s the real deal!”  And he is – isn’t he?  And so many of the top people I’ve heard speak at the NSA are like that as well.  I remember Nido Qubein telling us, and again, this is paraphrased, “If you’re so pathetic that you have to worry about others stealing something you said; if you’re so pathetic that you can’t think of something new, you need to get into a different line of work.”  In other words, you should constantly be coming up with your own unique stuff – and move on.

With all that being said, do you have the right to copy someone else’s work?  What if they give you permission?

Here’s my take on this.

As sweet as Brian’s offer was, I would never, never, deliberately plagiarize him.  (Or anyone else for that matter.)  Here’s why.

First, it’s just wrong.  To claim something that someone else wrote or said as your own work is just dishonest.  I’ve often had people send me e-mails with “suggestions” for my blog.  Some are pretty good.  But when I start doing the research, there either is no source or there is a debate over the correct source.  Something a friend sent to me several months ago was very good – a poem about women.  I wanted to use it.  In my attempts to find a source to link to, I found out the article had been stolen from a magazine writer.  I decided it was too much trouble and just came up with my own post instead.  After all, it’s really not that hard for me to do.  Which brings me to my next point–

It’s not necessary.  I am unique.  I’ve had unique experiences. I can talk (or write) for hours and hours on my subjects.  Shoot, I can talk or write for several hours on no subject!  I can always talk for longer than what people hire me to talk.  Seriously, my clients will hire me to speak for an entire day on a subject about which I could speak for an entire week!  At my last NSA conference someone said of speakers, “They’re the type of people who can open the refrigerator door and talk for 20 minutes about what’s in there.”  That is also paraphrased and I don’t remember who said it – but I’m not claiming it as my own – get it?  If the person who said it wants a link to their website – they’ll get it.  If they want it taken off, I will comply.  We do our best here – and I’m going to talk about there a little later.  For now, moving on to my third point–

I don’t like to worry.  Somebody, somewhere, at sometime, is going to “catch me.”  Even if I have permission from Brian Tracy to duplicate his work and even if he never sues me, I will have forever lost favor in the eyes of that person, and anyone else that person tells.  Of all the people who read my blog and books, there are at least a few who also read Brian’s.  When you read my work don’t you think it’s my own?  Don’t you assume that I’m pulling from my own learning experiences?  Of course you do, why shouldn’t you?  I’ve had some of my blog posts stolen.  The latest is at towels4us.com.  I don’t know who “hand towel” is, but he or she has plagiarized a lot of bloggers. 

“What if I do it by mistake?”  Okay, it is possible, when you read hundreds of books and articles on your subject, that your own thoughts will be affected by those influences.  That’s what learning is all about.  General concepts are just that – general.  Typically, if you give a definition of, for example, net profit, as “gross profit minus expenses,” no one is going to get upset with you – that’s a general concept.  But I have never known someone to “accidentally” steal someone’s entire system.  For example, if I wrote a book, gave it the title “Point of Focus” after Brian Tracy’s “Focal Point,” then proceeded to copy his outline and just tweak a few things here and there – that’s stealing.

What I will do, and can legally do, is read Brian’s book, jot down some of the ideas that really struck a chord with  me, quote him as the source, and then relay my own experiences and what I’ve learned along those same lines.

Can you tell I have a lot of books that were written by Brain Tracy?  I have only one by Alan Weiss. Which brings to mind the question:  Do people buy books in direct proportion to how nice someone was to them at the end of a seminar?  Hmmmmmmm.  But that’s another post!

(Now, you’d better be good this time, Alan, or I’ll tell your wife about that night in Tampa!)

Until next time,

Live with Integrity!

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