Behind the Perfect Apology
Who are we?
Well, we're friends and colleagues who have always been on the look out for the perfect apology. Why? Simply because we've had more than our fair share of messes from the proverbial s--- hitting the fan—messes that have come in all shapes and sizes.
Collectively, we are male, female, white, visual minorities, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Arab, Hindu, Sikh and hold Bachelor's degrees, MBAs and Doctorates. We're professors, business people, senior executives, programmers, customer service reps, entrepreneurs, designers, and consultants.
Our specialties (and messes) run the gamut from teaching and writing on subjects related to international relations, nuclear proliferation and global terrorism (as in... "Ok, I apologize for invading that country, and I understand why you just tested a nuclear bomb, but..."), to working as a Chief Strategy Officer for a Silicon-Valley-based dot-com company (as in... "There was a budget meeting? I didn't realize, I'm sorry I missed it...") to being a Database Administrator (as in... "Please forgive me, I had no idea the truncate command does that...").
So why did we create PerfectApology.com?
Despite our many differences we all have a few things in common--we're human and we tend to screw up on occasion--and we inevitably need to deal with the problem. We also love to be forgiven. It really is divine, especially if the screw up is huge.
In our case, given our proficiency at screwing things up so well AND so often, a good part of our expertise on the subject was born out of necessity. But everyone has to apologize for mistakes they've made, and, over time, we all TRY to slowly and painfully learn how to tailor those apologies to different people and situations.
The problem, of course, is that we almost always have to learn the hard way, by trial and embarrassing error. There are no guidebooks for apologies. No "one-stop-shopping" manuals to help take us through the steps to avoid the embarrassing error and find the "perfect apology".
That is where our collective expertise in research and problem solving came in. As we began to focus on the topic we noticed the myriad of daily apologies offered by regular folk, celebrities, sports figures, political leaders, business executives, and even the odd Pope.
We now understood that EVERY mistake does have the perfect apology. Finding it is the key!
We also realized that a perfect apology is truly an Art. And, since all forms of art deserve an audience, perfectapology.com was born.
So how did we put this site together?
When it came right down to it, all we really knew is that we had an idea that we wanted to share--something that could be useful for others.
We had several heated "discussions" about how to start the project, create the website, and so on...
Initially, we couldn't agree on which web hosting company to use, ***one of us worked for a company that was partnered with Yahoo! so you can well imagine what that discussion was like***.
We also disagreed on the domain name, ***one of us bought a domain without consulting anyone else in the group. Note: It is not the one you find yourself on right now***.
We didn't know how to build a website or even an actual web page ***we all claimed we could figure it out but when it got right down to things, well, it just wasn't going to happen***.
And we couldn't decide on our search engine optimization strategy, ***search engine optimization strategy? Most had never even heard the term while one of us thought he knew what he was doing. Note: Turns out he didn't have a clue***.
After apologizing to each other for getting so angry (we're still friends, so the apologies worked!), we realized that we had no idea how to move forward.
Then one of us remembered a business acquaintance that he had met a few years back, an internet guru who developed software that would provide the ultimate solution to our problem, a solution that would easily settle any and all of our disputes and required absolutely no technical knowledge.
He presented the product to the group and demonstrated how the software would build the pages for us, choose the right domain name, host the website, and position it AND optimize it for search engines.
It was a step-by-step guide with a proven track record that immediately impressed the group, and all for less than the cost of traditional web hosting. It was a no-brainer!
Within minutes, a unanimous agreement was reached, the software was purchased and we began to put together what you see here. The rest, as they say, is history...
We are thrilled with the response to the site from both website visitors and the search engines and have garnered some great media coverage as well.
2020 UPDATE: Fourteen years later and the site is still going strong. We couldn't be happier with the decisions we made!
As for that ultimate solution...
Well, let's just say it has paid for itself tenfold in getting us where we needed to go in record time. If you have a website idea that you want to get off the ground and are completely at a loss of where to start and what to do this link is well worth the visit. The sales approach used on their site is sometimes a bit "cheesy" in our opinion and had we not had the personal endorsement of one of our team members we may not have gone with it...But trust us (as we trusted our team-mate) it really is solid and does work!
The Perfect Apology Team
