He stole from me... then paid the price

This week, some drama happened…

I found out a creator I highly respected was stealing tweets from a good friend and passing it off as their own content.

And upon looking further…

I found out they were stealing tweets from me, word for word.

To say the least, I was disappointed in this creator.

But instead of exposing this creator on the timeline, I confronted them.

I was angry, but I took it as an opportunity to teach them an important lesson:

Never sacrifice your integrity.

Because in business (and life), your character is everything.

It takes years to build your reputation but seconds to destroy it.

Sure, it’s easy to copy paste some lines and get a bunch of likes and followers. Hell, it feels great to get that dopamine hit.

But it’s short-sighted.

I mean, think about it…

Yes, it works short-term.

Just find what’s working for other people, slap it under your name, and watch the benefits roll in.

But eventually you’re going to get caught.

I told him many people wouldn’t be understanding and would expose him on the timeline if they found out he was stealing tweets.

And if they did, he’d be screwed.

Now, here’s the kicker of this story…

That morning, this creator did a giveaway post on Twitter.

He gave a swipe file to every person who retweeted and followed him.

Innocent enough, right?

Turns out, it was a swipe file given to him by another creator.

… which he passed off as his own.

And guess what?

Someone found out and he was exposed on the timeline just couple hours after I warned him.

Boom.

Just like that, his reputation was stained.

He was blocked by a big creator in the space, other people now know him as someone who steals content, and he lost a ton of potential opportunities in business worth thousands of dollars.

All for some likes and followers.

Now, is this creator a bad person?

No.

They made a mistake. We all do. But more importantly, they learned a lesson (I hope).

Whatever endeavour you’re in, the biggest benefits come from compounding.

Which means you have to play the long-term game to get them.

And the only way you can do that is by maintaining a strong reputation built from a strong character.

So, my friends, I hope this story makes you see the importance of integrity and prevents you getting into a similar mess.

Your Canadian friend,

Dakota “Don’t steal my banger tweets” Robertson