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Do You Work on Your Flame or Your Wax?

Do You Work on Your Flame or Your Wax?

I attended an interesting training recently. The trainer was discussing our business as a candle. There are two basic components of a candle besides the wick. There is wax and there is a flame. He asked the question “Do you spend your time working on your flame or your wax?” I had no idea how to respond to his question, until he explained his definition of your wax versus your flame.

He told us to take out a piece of paper and write down one column titled Flame and the other column titled Wax. He then asked us to list our daily and weekly activities in the two different columns. If we were passionate about the task, write it under the Flame column. If the task was mundane or a task we dread, write it under Wax column. As I began to write down my task, it started to become clear how to answer his question. It forced me to define my business in a way that I had not thought of it before, what I love to do versus what I have to do.

He told us the successful business people he had worked with mastered this task of spending their time on the things they were passionate about and made them money. In other words their Flame. They hired and contracted others for these mundane tasks, or their Wax, for them to complete. Whether it is an employee, independent contractor, software or a service, they did not waste time on these tasks of Wax. They delegate them off of their plate without haste. This left extra time to work on their passion or Flame.

A candle without a flame is just a wax stick. There is no light or use. An entrepreneur who does not pursue their passion, may as well be an employee to help build someone else’s dream. This really caused me to refocus my energy. When running our business, it is easy to slip into mundane tasks because they must be done. It doesn’t happen overnight, but slowly and surely we change our focus from Flame to Wax.

This is a great exercise to evaluate your business by writing the two different columns. Passion is key to success. Are your working on your flame or your wax?

“I would rather work 80 hours per week for myself, than to work 40 hours per week for someone else”.   —Mark Cuban

Image by Photokanok at www.freedigitalphotos.net

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Tim Wilhoit is owner/principal of Your Friend 4 Life Insurance Agency in Nashville, TN. He is a family man, father of 3, grandfather of 1, entrepreneur, insurance agent, life insurance broker, employee benefit specialist, salesman, sales trainer, recruiter, public speaker, blogger, author and team leader with over 29 years of experience in sales and marketing in the insurance and beverage industries.

 

5 Responses to Do You Work on Your Flame or Your Wax?

  • Great analogy! I’m a great believer in “Flame” strategy otherwise what’s the point!

  • Mark, thank you for the kind words. I totally agree, what’s the point!

  • Looking at this from quite a literal angle, the flame is how brightly the candle burns, but the wax is what keeps the flame from burning up the entire wick immediately. In my perspective, this translates to passion – the flame, and endurance – the wax. One without the other isn’t nearly as effective as both together. Thank you for the opportunity to contribute, Tim!

  • Brandi, that is a great way to look at it as well. I agree both are needed but the idea is to delegate the wax and work on the flame. Thank you so much for sharing that.

  • I agree with Ms. Sayre. Although the article states to “delegate them off of their plate without haste”, there must be someone to delegate the less exciting tasks to, or nothing will move forward and the flame will extinguish.

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