Build A Business Like A Bonfire

One of the problems with success is that it demands continuous attention. Success tends to bless those who are most committed to giving it the most attention. It’s somewhat like a lawn or garden; no matter how green it gets or beautiful the flowers, you must continue to tend to it. You have to keep mowing, trimming, edging, watering, and planting; otherwise, your grass will turn brown and your flowers will die. That is the case for success as well. There is no retreating for those who want to create and keep it.

Here are 4 ways for you to build your fire so big that no one—and nothing—can put it out.

1. Commit to New Actions

How can you ever take too much action when you have an endless ability to create new actions? Look at the big players on this planet. None of them ever “run out” of energy, efforts, people, ideas, or resources. They enjoy the gifts of abundance because they create abundance in their enterprises.

You’ll find that the more you commit to new actions, the more creative you will become. It is as though your imagination opens up, and new possibilities just pour from it. It’s not even necessarily the creativity that is so brilliant but the ability to take massive action that it prompts.

2. Never Imitate Others’ efforts

Most competition is created by those who are unwilling to operate at higher levels of action, who merely imitate others’ efforts. There can never be enough wood on your fire. You can never take too much action or accumulate too much success. There is no such thing as being talked or written about excessively, being covered too frequently, receiving too much authority, or working too much.

People act as though work is something to get through, yet in reality, they spend very little of their time even doing it. Most people only work enough so that it feels like work, whereas successful people work at a pace that gets such satisfying results that work is a reward. Truly successful people don’t even call it work; for them, it’s a passion. Why? Because they do enough to win!

3. Don’t Rest

Add wood to your fire until you either start a brushfire or a bonfire—or burn the place down. Don’t rest, and don’t stop—ever. I learned this the hard way after achieving a lot of success and then resting on my laurels. This is a commonly made mistake. Do not do it! Keep stacking wood until the fire is so hot and burns so brightly that not even competitors or market changes can put your fire out.

Your fire has to continue to be stoked, and that means more wood, more fuel, and in your case, more actions. Once you start operating like this, it will become almost second nature to continue—because you are going to be winning. It’s easiest and most natural to continue taking massive actions when you are winning—and winning is only possible with massive actions.

Be particularly wary of those who suggest you have “done enough” or who advise you to take a rest or vacation. Now is not the time for rest and celebration; it’s time for more action. It is a myth to believe that the successful get to “kick back” and stop making the very efforts that have brought them fulfillment in the first place.

4. Be Obsessed

The dictionary defines the term obsessed as, “the domination of one’s thoughts or feelings by a persistent idea, image, or desire.” Until you become completely obsessed with your mission, no one will take you seriously. If you become obsessed with your idea, purpose, or goal, you will become equally addicted to the idea of making it work. 

The word “obsessed” tends to have a negative connotation because many people believe that obsession with something (or someone) is usually destructive or harmful. But show me one person who has achieved greatness without being obsessed on some level. When you begin to “heat things up,” you’ll quickly become aware—even obsessed—with the possibilities before you and will start to see new levels of positive results. Actions will start to perpetuate themselves like a flywheel that, once it gets going, continues going. Keep taking action until you can’t stop your forward momentum. 

The sad but true fact is that most people don’t even get in the neighborhood of building a bonfire. People fear that their actions will somehow get “out of control.” I promise you that this will not happen. The best way to quit worrying about competition and uncertainty is to build a fire so large and so hot that everyone in the world—even your competition—comes to sit by your fire for warmth. Go all the way—and then keep going until your fire burns so hot that people stand in admiration.

Build your fire so big and so hot that you not only burn the house down but incinerate everything in your path.

Be great,

Grant Cardone