(genius image from HTML Giant)

I have a few words to say about stealing, specifically, stealing intellectual property and trying to be like other people, and how that may affect your life.

Yesterday I had the great good fortune to learn that someone outright ROBBED (not even any alteration in color) half the branding on my blog and business (yep, the colored spectrum, my logo font style even the spectrum from my Tumblr) that I had painstakingly worked with designers to create for 6 months, that cost a lot of money and that I actually owned.  But, she saw it, she liked it, and she outright took it.

!!!!!!!!!

Now, in the spirit of my ethics and to restore a sense of propriety to this situation, we don’t need to name names (nor does she need to get any more attention from my brand and branding), but this incident of plagiarism brought to light the idea of being an original.  You see, if she doesn’t take down my branding and my stuff on her blog, I will take appropriate action… but I will also outdo her negative influence by inventing something newer and better. Count on that!

I’ve come to realize that the maxim “success is the only revenge” is true, and this success does NOT come from copying others.  In fact, let me remove the word “revenge” from the equation and just say that thieves do not, and should never, win.  Success comes from tapping into your originality, outdoing yourself and outperforming everyone by delivering excellence in abundance every day.  Sucess is a product of finding your voice and finding your own look, feel and style of life.  Sucess is not doing what everyone else is doing… its all about carving out your own path. Never in the world has this resonated as more true as in this age of marketing savvy, as everyone from mechanics to personal trainers and hairstylists are building a brand of what they uniquely bring to the table to stand out from the crowd.

I feel sorry for the person who stole from me.  To plagiarize blatantly is a sign of emptiness, its a void in morality, its totally without confidence in who you are as a person.  I wish her confidence, her own style and her own brand one day… but she can’t have mine!

Don’t let anyone take a piece of you, no matter what.  In the Buddhist philosophy, when someone talks badly about you, harms you, or, yes, plagiarizes you, that makes you much stronger and them much weaker.

While “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” plagarism is not mere imitation- its a crime.  Its also a crime to yourself to cheat yourself out of your own personal expression and, rather, to opt to rob someone else’s expression instead!  

Here’s to being the most original you that you can be; that’s where your personal power comes from!!! xoxo Dana