I regret allowing a handful of people into my community.
I regret giving them the authority to make meaningful changes, and I regret not recognizing sooner that many of their decisions were driven by their own interests.
They entered a community that was already strong and established, then used its reputation and resources to increase their own influence and challenge people who had previously told them no. What I believed was collaboration eventually became exploitation.
When they no longer got what they wanted, they organized a walkout and attempted to destabilize everything we had built. For nearly two years afterward, they continued speaking badly about the community, attacking my friends, and portraying all of us as villains.
They created documents filled with accusations and transformed a confrontation into an exaggerated narrative of prolonged harassment. They repeated their version of events until they believed repetition alone would make it true.
The situation went far beyond an ordinary disagreement.
Information about my home, my family, and my workplace was exposed. Their actions lead to death threats in many formats, Repeated attempts were made to damage my reputation and convince others that I was a dangerous or immoral person.
I watched them spend an enormous amount of time trying to tear me down.
For the most part, I allowed them to talk because the people who genuinely know me understand who I am. They have seen how I treat others, how I lead, and how much of myself I have given to the people around me. They can see through the performance.
Still, knowing that does not make the experience painless.
I am wired to care deeply about people. I try to lead with kindness, and I often wear my heart on my sleeve. Because of that, I allowed people to hurt me long after they had demonstrated that they did not care what their actions were doing to me.
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