OK team – good feedback.
I just got mightily irritated yesterday afternoon.
What with?
GDP-UK forum members, many of whom I have never met, who seem to have an inside track on my business philosophy, my ethics, my track record as a trainer, coach and consultant, my personal lifestyle, how many holidays I take, the state of my dentition (remember last years “we hate Chris Barrow festival?).
Actually – no – in fact there’s a humorous post on GDP-UK this morning from a guy called Ian Martin who has “discovered” me via the thread.
The old adage is true -“bad publicity is like bad breath – its better then no breath”.
By the way Mike Clark – I don’t “lurk” and never have done – I just have lots of mates who voluntarily send me copies of the threads. Your forum is not and never has been private.
What dismays me the most is that the woman I love and share my life with is a forum member (because she is a healthcare professional) and has to read the allegations and presumptions.
She has feelings and gets hurt – I wonder if the forum members would post the same disrespectful comments if it were compulsory that THEIR own children read what THEY write – and that the families of the “targets” read it as well. Or perhaps if a digest of their posts were printed in the dental media?
I’ve past caring what is said and who says it – this is my LAST public comment for now.
I’d prefer to make lemonade out of these lemons.
Here’s an idea.
I’ll happily meet any of these detractors in open debate – any place, any time – we’ll sell tickets and raise money for Bridge2Aid.
Do something useful instead of sitting in your bunker expressing what you think are unregulated opinions.
Lets debate:
practice goodwill values (by the way – see my ezine next week for an article on this)
the way to succeed in the NHS
how to succeed in private practice
associate pay rates
the roles of retailers, corporates and independents
whether therapists can be utilised profitably
how to create a great team
attracting new patients
or, if it makes you happy…lets debate
my business ethics
my past, present and future business activities
how many hours a week I work and weeks per year I take on holiday
what I actually said versus what somebody said I said
why and how I work for the PCT’s, the corporates and independents and don’t spread myself too thin.
Do you have the courage to back your opinions and help a good cause?
Lawyers – as Churchill (the dog) would say – “Oh Yes” – simply because I want to create a test case to protect the next “target”.
GDC as well – I think much of what I am sent from GDP-UK brings the profession into disrepute – and I’m interested to know what they have to say.
Many of you know my favourite cliche:
“Don’t wrestle with pigs in shit – the shit smells and the pig loves it.”
And I’m grateful to my mate Guy Levine for pointing out that I appeared to be climbing into the pig pen.
My reply – “I agree, but sometimes when the pig is chewing your leg, you have to hit it with a big stick.”
I’m going to see where this goes – it will be intellectually stimulating, raise my profile even further (thank you all) and might just be helpful to the next victim of a forum that remains poorly moderated.
I have no objection to healthy, informed, provocative debate – to pushing back the barriers, tearing up the rule book, challenging bureaucracy – goodness me, its what I do!
I object to rude, disrespectful, ill-informed, unchecked slander.
Defamation—also called calumny, vilification, slander (for transitory statements), and libel (for written, broadcast, or otherwise published words)—is the communication of a statement that makes a claim, expressly stated or implied to be factual, that may give an individual, business, product, group, government, or nation a negative image. It is usually, but not always,[1] a requirement that this claim be false and that the publication is communicated to someone other than the person defamed (the claimant).
In view of that, whilst I’m networking in Liverpool with people who do something useful in dentistry – some might want to spend their weekend reading back through their posts to check whether you are slanderous or bringing dentistry into disrepute – off you go – delete, delete, delete.
