I know, that is one sad pun. Sorry Dan Hill. What is even sadder is that I am sitting at my desk, at 7:24 AM, laughing hysterically because I think I am funny.

Unfortunately last week some people didn’t find my blog so funny. While the comments scoreboard on my blog stands at “0”, my email inbox was lit up like Marc Andre Fleury. (Yes, I wrote this before Game 6… so maybe that won’t be an accurate crack either).

I don’t want to sound like the jaded old journalist who tells you that for every angry email received, there were ten positive ones… but it’s true. That said, I did realize my blog last week insulted some people. That includes one I would consider a business friend, although I don’t know him well.

So to him I apologize.

I read my blog again and realized that it was very Mark Harrison-like. The 3,739 surviving former employees of mine out there can attest to that. Sometimes I can write what should be some simple feedback (hey… are there page numbers on that deck?) and turn it into a searing packet of nastiness, disguised as an email. Yes, sometimes what I write can ruin your day.

So when I read my blog, I realized it was pretty harsh. Maybe that’s why so many of you read it. We actually set a record last week.

When I re-read it, one mistake I realized is that it wasn’t just GM that was my intended target. It was Chrysler and it was the US banking system. It was Lehman brothers and it was Goldman Sachs. It was a big client (who will go nameless) of mine.

You see back in November we had a major client drop a seven-figure project like it was a baby’s first dirty diaper. All because they too hadn’t done a great job of managing their business, and their American owners were scrambling for money.

Between you and I and the rest of the World Wide Web, it was a fatal loss from someone we have worked with for over ten years. I had heard of other agencies having this happen. I once lost a big client when they were sold and stopped doing event marketing. But never my biggest, and never from someone I worked with since 1996. Never. Ever.

So I stood in front of my staff last December and said I had good news and bad news. The good news? The holidays were coming. The bad news… see above.

We were clear with our team that it was a huge part of our year, revenue-wise and since we were already mid-year (we go summer to summer… don’t ask why), that our back half was destroyed!

Say good-bye to profit for the year. Say goodbye to the bonus plan. Say goodbye to some colleagues.

Stop right there.

While I lost many a nights sleep. (Probably less than our CFO though, and since she’s my wife I should know). And while I lost a few more hairs, I didn’t lose any people.

Thankfully our team pulled together. We won some new business. Received some new assignments from some current clients. And got lucky with a couple of brands that increased their budgets with us.

Bottom line is we survived.

What does this have to do with GM or Chrysler or my harsh words? It explains my frustration. I couldn’t have imagined receiving a bailout of tax money to keep my business afloat. I am not a great businessman, but as an entrepreneur that’s the risk I take.

As a shareholder in a big company, that’s the risk you take.

Candidly, as an employee who bargains for increased wages and benefits for years on end, that’s a risk you take.

I am all for our government helping out. I just hope it works. I hope we triple our money by investing in the auto companies.

But I would have preferred they had put that money in the hands of Canadians. I like the “junker” program being bandied about. Why not encourage the sale of new cars by providing trade-in allowances on old ones? That would spur the sector and let the consumer decide.  That way the best company wins.

I don’t like government subsidizing one company over the other. My tax dollars should be a stimulus, not a crutch.

Maybe if I could do it over, I would have written a less inflammatory blog. But maybe if I had, my point would not have been made.

Perhaps I should have listed to my inner Dale Carnegie. I’ve been reading his books (listen up ex-employees). Although one could argue you cant read your way to a personality, I am trying!

But in life, unlike cyberspace, there is no rewind button. So let’s look up to the Stairway to Heaven and not down the Highway to…