Two years ago, right after I quit my full-time job, I discovered that a popular podcast was using Starter Story for leads.

I wouldn't usually have a problem with this, but this podcast was not interviewing founders - it just had a narrator who would tell stories about businesses.

An employee of this podcast company was reaching out to people I interviewed and told them they would just take the content from their Starter Story interview and repurpose it.

When I heard this, I was livid.

I sent them a super nasty email, and I included the both the founder and that employee on the email.

Have you ever heard of a nastygram? This was a nastygram. I was rude, aggressive, and mean.

I think about this often, and the more time goes on, the more I realize how out of line I was.

While the employee of this company probably was not going about things in the best way, they definitely didn't have malicious intentions towards me or my business.

That mean note I sent may have caused that employee to have a really bad day, or a bad week - maybe they even feared losing their job or something. It is unacceptable to ever make anyone feel that way.

I really regret how I acted. Being angry at other people/businesses is not worth it - running a business is already hard enough.

Today, I'm apologizing.

I think it's important to right our wrongs. I have experienced the other side of this, where someone apologized to me years later. When they did this, all my hatred for them vanished, and I still think of them fondly.