When Your Work is Stolen Right Under Your Nose, is a Meltdown a Good Idea?

Here’s what happened. I was a new Mom, a stay-at-home Mom. This was totally foreign to me. I was in my mid-thirties and up until then, I’d been a career woman.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved being a stay-at-home Mom, but I missed my career, including all the things I had previously complained about — wearing heels, office gossip, and attending pointless meetings — I missed it all.

So when a friend contacted me about joining her in a direct sales business I jumped at it. Seemed perfect. I could work when I chose, I could wear my business attire, I could interact with adults and I could make money. What could be better?

Shocked me

It started out great and went up from there. I was having a blast and making money. I was part of a team of dynamic and fashionable women who soon became my friends. I shocked myself with how good I was at sales.

The product was fashion jewelry, something I knew very little about. What I did know was how to make women feel special and deserving of splurging on themselves. It was great fun. Within six months I was the number one rep in the midwest.

The local team was run by a woman with years of experience in direct sales. She ran our weekly meetings with a mix of encouragement and admonishment. Weekly goals and monthly quotas were taken seriously. She expected us to track our numbers and be ready to report. This came easily to me, but not to the majority of the team.

Decided to help

I decided to use my writing and business background to help. I spent a few days putting together a small booklet which I titled The Joy of Record Keeping. I arranged with the team leader to do a mini-seminar and had the booklet printed at a local print shop. The seminar went great, everyone was appreciative and excited.

About a month later there was a regional conference being held in Niles, Michigan. A number of our team were attending including me.

Upon arrival, the welcome packet came with a surprise. Included in the itinerary was a session titled The Joy of Record Keeping. This was the first session of the conference. This struck me strange as I hadn't been asked to do a session.

Stolen

That morning a resource center was made available. There were long lines to get in and lots of buzz about being prepared. When I finally made it in I realized what the buzz was about. There on the table was my booklet reprinted with my name removed. It was for sale for $5 and selling like crazy.

I grabbed a copy and bolted out the door. I tried locating my team leader or the VP sponsoring the conference. No luck. The only thing I could do was go in and find a seat. I sat there shaking trying to process my options. I pondered charging the podium and declaring myself the actual creator and publicly exposing the theft to the 700 women in attendance.

I reluctantly decided against it.

Melted down

Once the crowd settled, the VP introduced the woman who was doing The Joy of Record Keeping training. The woman began stumbling through my material. I lost it. I stood up knocking my chair over, slammed my fist down on the table, spilling a glass of water, grabbed my stuff, and making as big a scene as I could muster — stormed out.

My meltdown was totally effective in making me look like an unhinged moron and totally ineffective in dealing with the situation at hand.

When I later confronted the team leader and the VP their response was I created it while “working for them” therefore they owned it and could do whatever they liked. This was not true as we were 1099 independent contractors and not employees.

I researched my options, I contacted a lawyer, but ultimately my best option was to resign, which is what I did.

Looking back on this, while my legal recourse was limited and expensive, I wish I’d stormed the stage and publically outed them as the unethical low lifes they were. I likely would’ve been ushered out by security, and still looked like an unhinged moron, but at least I’d have the satisfaction of having publically disrupted their perfect ruse.

This experience stalled my writing career and my entrepreneurial efforts for longer than I care to admit. My usual trusting nature took on a suspicious undertone. I was hesitant to share my writing because someone might steal it and I viewed all direct sales companies as being run by thieves.

Obviously, neither judgment was accurate.

Lesson learned

Eventually, I got past it. I started sharing my writing without worry and did business with several direct sales companies — all without incident.

The lesson this brought home to me is one I come back to again and again: Recognize what’s in your control and what’s not. The theft and sale of my work weren’t in my control — only my response was.

My in-the-moment response was a justified emotional reaction, but my prolonged suffering — that was my doing.