Self Protection, Self Defence & Fighting

A friend of mine that is not a Martial Artist but never the less surfs quite a few Martial Arts sites asked me if there was a difference between "Self Protection" and "Self Defence"? He was confused because the two terms seemed to be used for the same purpose by certain Styles he had researched and wanted to know if it was just "Sales Talk".
Not wanting to get involved in an argument about Styles I do not know too much about I responded by telling him what it means to me, and what I try to get across to the People I teach.
No matter what style you train in you should learn different things for "Self Protection", "Self Defence" and "Fighting", because they are all very different things and cannot be thrown in together, and the way I see it is that-

 "Fighting starts when Self Defence has succeeded, and Self Defence starts when Self Protection has failed"

To me "Self Protection" is making decisions that do not put us in harms way.
"Self Defence" is stopping Attacks from hitting us.
"Fighting" is hitting the other guy.

Let me paint a Picture.

You are standing near the Bar at a Night Club, there is a loud, obnoxious Guy acting like he owns the place that you have seen on the other side of the Room, he comes over to the Bar to get himself a Drink and stands there making fun at the people dancing in front of him, something happens he spills his Drink and turns to blame you, next thing he hits you, {The Bad guy is now Fighting}  you attempt to Block his attack {You are now in Self Defence} after the first few Blows you start hitting him back {You are now Fighting} and he starts to Block your Attack {He is now in Self Defence} and the Dance begins.
If you had chosen to move away as soon as the Ape had come to the Bar {Self Protection} none of this would of happened,

Fighting starts when Self Defence has succeeded, once you stop him hitting you it gives you the chance to hit him.

Self Defence starts when Self Protection has failed" if you are not there to be hit you do not need to defend yourself.

As Mr Miyagi so rightly said   "Best Defence, don't be there"

It is important to understand these differences, because it is almost impossible to think about attacking if you are in Self Defence mode, and it is almost impossible to think about defending yourself when you are hell bent on attack. 

On the Face of it this comment may appear to contradict what we teach in Wing Chun, that is "Simultaneous Attack and Defence", it does not though, firstly in Wing Chun we "Counter Attack' as opposed to flat out attack, and this really is a very big difference especially Mentally, and once you begin to understand your training you will see that our Simultaneous Attack and Defence is actually more like attacking from behind a Shield. I will go into this in depth at a later date, but for now , Read, Think and Ask Questions.