Dear [Copycat]: Just fill in your name.

You know who you are. And we know who you are, too, because just recently you copied someone’s work, techniques, or tools. You were trying to get away with using someone else’s ideas, concepts, or words—taking a shortcut, if you will. However, the reality is that there are no shortcuts—there really aren’t. And although at that moment you think you’ll reach your goal faster and easier than we did, you will soon understand that you are hurting yourself, your career, or your business in so many ways. However, before I share with you how you are damaging your reputation, let’s get one thing out of the way:

Having your work copied isn’t "flattering.” It really isn't.

I know right now you live in this space of comfort and think we should be flattered that you have been so inspired by our work. But that’s just a bizarre compliment. The reality is it’s all about you, not us. You have taken something, small or large, into which we have put time, effort, passion, money, and much more, and you have stolen it. That flatters neither you nor us. Imagine tonight that we'd steal your car and tell you after being caught that you should feel flattered that you had such a pretty car that we felt inspired to steal it.

You crossed the line, and stealing our work is simply disrespectful. You are a thief. In fact, according to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, you are someone who

• steals and passes off [the ideas or words of another] as one’s own
• uses [another’s production] without crediting the source.

It was our labor and work that you stole. And it’s called labor for a reason. It required commitment, energy, professionalism, and time. But you don’t have time, because . . .

Lies spread faster than the truth spreads.

You should know that we usually become aware of your act of theft quite quickly. If you are lucky, it is just karma that makes it show up on our screens or telephones, or it randomly crosses our path in an email or through a conversation. Most often, however, a third party is involved. Someone who values the effort and passion we have put into our work who brings your unethical behavior to our attention. In fact, I’m writing this letter to you because just recently one of my clients reached out to share that she had stumbled over one of my former students publishing my work without my permission.

The same could happen to you one day. Your clients or bosses, your colleagues or teammates, your sponsors or mentors, your competitors or partners, your family or friends—they all might already know that you don’t take copyright and plagiarism seriously. Your lies might have already caught up with you and now they are all watching YOU; how flattering is that for you? You might have thought stealing from us is an issue just between us, but the reality is that there are many more bystanders noticing your acts of theft and changing the way they think about you, because . . .

Confirmation bias will prove we are right about you.

Look, for you it was just a few words or paragraphs you copied—a small idea or concept you noticed when our paths crossed virtually or in person. For us, however, you have proven that we have different core values and that your fundamental beliefs are far from where we think they should be. Our brains have a true desire to be right and now make us wonder, how else are your shaky ethics affecting your actions? We can’t even stop thinking this way—it happens automatically because our brains can’t perceive circumstances objectively. We start questioning your personal and professional moral and ethical principles. We start doubting your entire work performance and wonder if anything you’ve created so far comes from your own labor. Our brains are wired like this, and confirmation bias will make sure that we ignore anything that goes against our initial opinion that you lack integrity, passion, knowledge, and expertise, because . . .

You are not growing as a business person or as a human.

As with any skill, the only way to improve is to go through failures and successes, through wins and worries, through lessons learned, and through practice, practice, practice, and more practice. But you aren’t learning anything by just copying someone else’s work. In fact, you lack the fundamental skill to create your own work. By just adding our existing thoughts and ideas to the equation, you aren’t contributing to your own personal and professional journey of growth or to the big picture.

I am confident enough to say the chances are high that you don’t even really understand what you shared from our work because you never developed and fully processed it. We are armed with the expertise and knowledge it took to develop what you stole, but you don’t even know why this is important for us, our clients, our partners, or our readers. You’d probably like to be perceived by this audience as a subject matter expert, thought leader, and forward thinker. However, being perceived as (and possibly staying) mediocre is what is ahead of you—similar to the mediocre enthusiasm you feel when you think about your achievements, because . . .

Are you ever really, really, really proud of yourself?

Do you know that feeling at the very end when you have delivered your best work—something you’ve created that wouldn’t exist without your brain work and your unlimited passion and outrageous love for it? Those are beautiful moments filled with nothing but happiness, joy, and pride, making your heart beat faster as you look at your achievement and think to yourself, Wow. I did this. I really did this. No, I understand. You don’t know what I’m talking about. You don’t get the goosebumps that we just got by reading these lines. Well, that is because what you stole is not yours. Our contributions can never make you feel like this, because they are ours, not yours.

So maybe it’s about time to ask yourself whether what you are doing on a daily basis is really the right thing to do in general and in your job, your business, and your project in particular. Is it because you are tired of it? Or was it never a great fit for you in the first place? Why does it feel so hard to produce your own ideas for it? Be honest with yourself for just a moment. Wait, I understand that being honest is hard because . . .

There is so much magic in honesty, yet it's a route you rarely take.

Everyone makes mistakes; yes, we do too. However, instead of just saying you’re sorry after stealing others’ works, you usually try to sweep it under the rug or place the blame on other people. One former student once wrote to me that she tries to help me achieve brand consistency by copying the content of my online course word-by-word in her newsletter. Another student tried to convince me that I could get more speaking engagements based on my bio being on her LinkedIn profile. Another one I spoke to–personally because I really cared—committed to not use an exercise she noticed in one of my videos in the future; yet six days later published a video promoting it. There is always an editor or writer whose work you didn’t double-check before publishing. And how about the dozens of unfortunate virtual assistants you blame throughout this process and constantly throw under the bus?

No, you don’t need to plead for forgiveness; you just need to communicate that you clearly understand the impact your mistake has had on us, fix it immediately, apologize professionally, and move on. Just a word of caution: I believe in second chances, but I hardly ever believe in third ones. Recently, a speaker used my keynote opening in his presentation, which was captured on camera and published on his page. The excuses were manifold, from being asked to speak last-minute, to being clueless and pressured about possible material to present, to having my material fresh on his mind and not noticing a participant filmed his presentation. His newly hired virtual assistant (Hello? Again?) had no clue and put it into a beautifully crafted speaker demo video. Despite the heartfelt apology, the same video emerged weeks later in a "call for speakers," submitted (un)fortunately to one of my valued past clients. So let me explain the consequences in such a case, because . . .

Just because you think it’s not illegal doesn’t mean we can’t do anything.

In fact, we have many options to protect our work and make sure everyone, including you, knows that you have simply come along and taken credit for what may have taken us years and a great deal of work to accomplish. We can . . .

1. Submit an ethics complaint against you in case we work for the same company (legal or human resources departments can assist with this). The same is true if we are both members of the same professional association. For my fellow speaker colleagues, who are members of the National Speakers Association, for example, this means we can submit a complaint here. Our code of ethics clearly states: “NSA members shall avoid using—either orally or in writing—materials, titles or thematic creations originated by others unless approved in writing by the originator.”
2. Ask Google and our hosting company for help by filing a Google spam report and contacting Google so the content may be removed. Google might also ban your site from search engines. In addition, we can file a DMCA takedown notice and we can contact your website’s hosting company, which is easy to find out here, and request that the content be removed.  
3. Protect ourselves from future plagiarism by signing up for Copyscape, an affordable service that checks any website(s) regularly. For a quick manual search, Grammarly Plagiarism Checker does the trick. Or, we can set up free Google Alerts to see whether our content is being used without our permission. By installing WordPress plugins such as Copyright Proof, we can make sure our content is timestamped to prove that we published the content first. For images, we can use Google Reverse Image Search and Tineye to find duplicates.
4. Send you a "fair warning"—your one-time opportunity to fix what you have done wrong. It will sound along these lines: Dear xxx, It has come to my attention that you have made unauthorized use of content from my website {www.url.com} published on your website {www.url.com}. In fact, entire paragraphs were copied and pasted, using word-for-word copy. You neither asked for nor received permission to use content from my website. Therefore, you have willfully infringed my rights under 17 U.S.C Section 101 et seq. and are liable for statutory damages. For more information about copyright law, please visit www.copyright.gov. I demand that you immediately cease the use and distribution of all infringing content in any of your online and offline communication. If the infringing content on is not removed within five business days and I do not receive an affirmative response from you by {date} indicating that you have fully complied with these requirements and that you have taken steps to discontinue such use, I shall take further legal action against you. In addition, I will file a formal DCMA complaint (www.google.com/dmca.html) and report the copyright violation to your hosting provider.
5. Hire an intellectual property lawyer "IP Lawyer" to protect our rights to our inventions, our designs, or our artwork. Someone like my valued friend, outstanding colleague and experienced intellectual property expert Russ Riddle who helps business owners through all legal hurdles of claiming exclusive rights via copyright, trademarks, and much more.

However, for now, we are leaving you with this letter of advice and a few simple words of caution:

What goes around comes around.

Sincerely yours,

The Owner of My Work

________________________________________________________

PS: The struggle is real...