A while ago, Twitter was agog over an author who falsely accused a more accomplished one of plagiarism. After being caught in the error, she gave a grudging apology that smacked of desperate self-preservation. I think the enormity of her gaffe finally dawned on her and she sought a way out. Twitter gave her none. “For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”

I find that public meltdowns are rarely random. Several times, life has warned you about certain behaviours in private (and among family & friends). But, you simply refused to listen. To save you, life ensures you receive a very public lesson, so you can finally get the point. In this particular case, there were too many points of intervention, while the controversy swirled. The author’s agents would have reached out. Friends and family members too. But pride makes one hard of hearing; that intractable desire to be right and others wrong. With one tweet, a new author has become a byword and proverb, a story Google will never forget.

Self-sabotage is public home training. You will scarcely repeat the same mistake twice. That said, I would like to tell you a story about someone I met on Facebook.

A young lady reached out to me with a desire to go back to school. She desperately needed funding. As I always do, I asked her to find someone I knew, who could vouch for her. She did and so, I agreed to take on the cost on two conditions. The first was that she looked for an online or part-time course, so she would have some free time to earn a living for expenses. The second was that she would attend a life coaching session, so she would be well prepared for her academic journey. I financed the session with a very busy coach.

The lady confirmed the coaching session date and then failed to show up. No call. No excuse. No apology. I saw the confirmation email. A week later, she sauntered back into the coach’s email demanding for a new session date. No apology. No explanation. I have since sent her an email withdrawing the session. I am also unwilling to sponsor her education any longer. I don’t finance bad behaviour.

It was clearly a case of self-sabotage; treating things of value as profane; the Esau spirit. Perhaps, this is life’s way of teaching her to be serious. Another opportunity will come. May she be ready then.

For more of my random thoughts about life, you should get my new book, UNSCRIPTED.