20: It’s Time To Add Some Heat

Chris Suarez: [00:00:00] [00:00:00] For the past six once or so, I've been studying the foundation of being curious, asking questions, challenging, strongly held beliefs and behaviors. It's helped me find some pretty incredible lessons in everyday life. It's been my focus this year, constantly making sure I ask enough questions. I stay curious.

I learned about things I've never stopped to learn about and find lessons in those simple things for myself and lessons for those around me as well. One such lesson presented itself this morning before sunrise, about four 30 in the morning. This morning I got on my tent and I made a simple fire, just three pieces of wood.

My daughter, my youngest clearly also an early riser. The fire started with me right away and we both sat there staring at the fire. We sat in mostly quiet for about 45 minutes, every so often adding a log to the fire. To keep the flame dancing. Why can we stare at a fire forever? Why does it capture our attention and our focus?

Well, the simple answer is just that it's simple, a fire isn't very complicated and as simple as it is, it's beautiful. It's incredibly powerful. It can do massive damage and can grow rapidly. And there in lies a lesson for the entrepreneur. First let's understand what fire really is with a quick science lesson here with just a single piece of wood and a single source of heat of flame can be produced.

When that piece of wood gets to about 300 degrees Fahrenheit, it will begin to smoke. Now that smoke is actually made up of just three simple gases, hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen. When those gases increase to a temperature of 500 degrees Fahrenheit, it will actually cause a flame to form it's the carbon atoms that actually begin to emit, emit light producing that mesmerizing flame.

So what's the entrepreneurial lesson for us. There are three parts fuel heat. Oxygen fuel heat oxygen first have the best fuel. You can't build a fire without a few sticks. This is where understanding what's at the core of your business is all about what industry are you in. If you have a product that you've built and are selling, this is your fuel.

If you're developing software to distribute, this is your fuel. If you're in a service business, the level of delivery of that service, that's your fuel. If you're a knowledge worker, You are your fuel. Now, if you have a choice between burning paper or burning, would you choose wood? So choose your product wisely, constantly perfect.

Your product or your craft. If you're going to do the work to get to 500 degrees Fahrenheit, then you might as well make sure you're going to be burning a solid piece of wood. So go throw a lot on that fire. Number two. Apply a heat source. Your level of activity will determine the temperature of your heat source business low because the level of energy you're either applying right now, or that you applied in the not too distant past, just showed up any point in time.

If you were convinced that your product or service is ready to ignite, and yet you just can't get traction where you just can't get the results, you'd like, then revisit your level of activity. In business, there's no such thing as just throwing some gasoline on the fire. Activity is always hard work, but remember, you will see very clear signs that what you're building is working, you will begin to see smoke.

Now, just turn up the heat work a bit harder, increase the level of the activity. Remember that a 300 degrees, the wood begins to smoke. You're more than halfway there. At 500 degrees, you have the power and momentum to light a full-fledged forest fire. Oh, one other question to ask, what color is your flame?

A color variation and flame is based on the uneven temperature in different areas of the flame. The hottest portion of your flame will glow bright blue. The cooler parts will be orange or yellow. So where's your business right now? Did it just turn yellow? Has it moved to orange? Is it burning bright blue?

It's a great metric to get a gauge on where you are versus where you want to be. Get your flame blue third, keep your oxygen flowing. The cool thing about a fire is that it is self perpetuating. The heat of the actual flame will we'll keep the fuel at the ignition temperature. So as long as there is fuel, it will continue.

The only thing needed is a source of fuel and [00:05:00] oxygen. So here's the wind for us as entrepreneurs, as long as we can get the fire started and the flames consuming your fuel, then it all comes down to consistency. Your level of consistency will determine whether or not your Firebird or whether or not the flame goes out.

See too often in business, we go through unwanted cyclical results because we cut off the oxygen to the business. By our lack of consistency, keep adding oxygen, build the right habit of activities. Now one final thought fires can travel up to 14 miles per hour in grasslands. It can double in speed. If the land has an uphill slope, I find that interesting because we tend to think everything goes faster.

Downhill. Not true with fire or with your business. See, the fire always burns upward because the hot gases are less dense than the surrounding air. So it rises. It's the reason why flames always seem to dance upward into a point in business as with fire being willing to travel uphill and do the work will allow you to grow at a faster rate.

It reminds me of something I heard John Maxwell say, once everything worthwhile is uphill. Fuel heat, oxygen, fire perfect. Your product. Focus on the right activity and keep consistent.