The Man & the Fireplace

In a cabin somewhere up in the mountains in the middle of winter, a man stands in front of his fireplace hugging a bunch of firewood.

Heavy snowfall threatens to bury the cabin, with no end in sight.

You can see his every breath as he shivers ever so slightly in the freezing weather.

The fireplace lies barren.  The cabin itself devoid of warmth.

The man is desperate for heat.  Yet, he distrusts the fireplace – ever so fearful that it would betray him.

So he says to the fireplace, once again, between chattering teeth,

“Give me fire and then I shall give you wood.”

Sad Right?

You read this and you can’t help but shake your head and chuckle in disbelief.  ”What a moron!” you might be thinking.  Surely if you were in that man’s position you’d know better and do differently right?  Anybody with a remotes sens of reason would know that before a fireplace can give you fire you MUST first give it firewood.

Then let me ask you this, why are you being that same way?  Why are you standing in front of your fireplace that is your business holding out on it?

And I am not talking just about money, although that is one component of it… I am also talking about your time, effort, and care.

You look distrustfully at your business, thinking its just a time-suck, a black-hole that takes and takes without giving.  So you do what most other “entrepreneur-wanna-bes” do, you do what the man in the story does, you refuse to devote anything to the business UNTIL it gives something to you first.

And so you wait… much like that man in front of the fireplace.

Your Business Needs You

Stop WAITING for your business to give you something.  Work for it.

Your business will not grow without you actively growing it.  You need to continually invest in it.  Whether that’s your time, money, and/or effort.

I don’t care what your MLM upline, the person who sold you the home based business opportunity, business “partner” tell you, they will NOT grow your business FOR you.  And no, it will not miraculously grow by itself either – sorry to disappoint.  If you are serious about your business and achieving your goals, it’s time to stop just “dreaming about it” and actually put in some good ol’ fashioned EFFORT.

So before you get frustrated at your business (if you can even call it that…) and look for targets to scapegoat and scream to the world that “this doesn’t work”, check yourself.

Are YOU working it?

Raymond Fong