Yes, I still say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year instead of Happy Holidays–even though most folks know I’m a bit of a bah-humbug at Christmas. It was my misspent youth. Holidays at my house were not much fun and I guess that has carried through into my adulthood.

But with a 17 year old and a wife with a large family I’ve had to adjust. (Okay, those of you who know me are now chuckling at the thought of me adjusting to anything.) But I admit, the reasons that the holidays bug me are unimportant; the truth of the matter is the season always makes me realize how lucky I am.

I have a great staff and I give a special shout out to two of them, Maria and Ann Marie, who are both recovering from major surgery and soon to be back. We miss them and their energy.

My Princess is 17 going on 25 and applying to colleges (in Vermont no less!) and my wife is healthy after two battles with cancer. (Yup she would kill me if she knew I told people, so please don’t tell her). And finally it was 3 years ago last week that I walked out of the best hospital in the world, Brigham and Women’s in Boston, with a heart that had been fixed.

To make a long story short, I guess you could say I’ve received all the presents I could ever need or want–so go worry about your own!

Sometimes the simplest mistake could be averted by thinking and remembering that someone is always looking over our shoulders in this crazy Advertising business.

Sadly, I don’t always practice what I preach. For example, a couple of years ago we were dealing with a client who had a Marketing Manager who just was way over his head. While we always talked about him in-house, we were careful and considerate in person. Well one day he asked me, via e mail, one of the stupidest questions I had ever heard. So I sent it around to all my staff who worked on the account, to think about how we could answer him. At the end of the e mail I sent to my staff I said, “What a dumb ^%$* jerk is this $#*% idiot and where in the hell did he lose his brain if he ever had one!”

Well of course you know what I did! I hit reply instead of creating a new e-mail and yes, my staff all got it because I cc’d them, but so did the jerk. Shortly after he received the e mail he sent one back that asked if it had been sent to him by mistake. So I danced a little for him and explained our frustrations and tried to wiggle out of it. The good news is the owners of the business realized I was right and fired him a couple of weeks later. But what if he had the clout inside to have me fired. This account (which we still have) is the 1st or 2nd largest in AGI in the firm.

I’m a lot more circumspect now because of this experience…you should all be careful. For another take on this subject check out my good friend Drew’s blog.

This piece was so right on, I’ve decided to devote my blog to it this week.

Visit http://itribe.biz/marketing/?p=53 and see for yourself.

Amen, I couldn’t have said it better.