It was about 4 years ago, I was getting involved with local business groups, I was helping 3 small startups get their ideas off the ground and I was teaching job search skills at a local shelter. I was feeling better about myself on most fronts but still had this demon in my background that I constantly worried about. In my personal relationships, I would wait until things got serious before I would disclose my felony. At times it did not go so well but most often, I was accepted after I told them and things would go on. Naturally, they would want to know the details, which are never fun to rehash, but I would explain what happened and hope they would accept me for what they knew.

So there I was, preparing for a meeting and trying to decide if I was going to tell them about my background. Before I could even decide, we had a discussion about Google and all the information that was available on the internet. We proceeded to Google eachothers’ names and of course mine. There it was, my arrest, conviction and sentencing for all to see. That was not even the bad part, they knew folks at the business network I was a member of for the prior year and a half and immediately let them know what they had found. That in turn caused a private meeting to be called and I was asked to leave the group. A group where I had done a lot of work and provided assistance wherever I could. This was a place I felt comfortable and thought I was a valuable contributing member of. Unfortunately, they did not understand what had happened and I candidly I did not blame them. I too probably would have felt the same way if I had been in their shoes. The real issue was the shock of finding out someone was not who you thought they were, this is something we can all identify with. The news is full of people like that, we read about them every day. But what came out of this unfortunate experience has proven to be more valuable than anything I could ever ask for. One of my customers, who is an attorney and someone that I had been working with not only did not discard our relationship but helped me understand the value of full disclosure. That is the best reason for this site, to help people in a similar situation understand the value in letting others know what happened and to realize that someone finding out on their own is far more damaging than telling them yourself.