FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!
This time of year, the evenings are lovely and cool. My wife and I frequently open the windows allowing the soft breeze to waft through the house. It’s also perfect weather for barbequing without breaking out into a sweat standing over the coals.
So there I was, sitting on the couch, minding my own business, and waiting a few minutes before having to flip the mouth-watering steaks cooking just outside my perch. Then, out of nowhere, the ear-piercing scream of our smoke alarm began to wail. After quickly recovering from my near-fatal heart attack, I immediately surmised that this was just the result of some residual smoke that had blown into the house, through the window, and, apparently, near the smoke alarm.
After administering CPR to my dog, who was equally terrified by the abrupt and violently shocking warning, I realized something. Every day, we are confronted with unexpected surprises that sometimes become fires requiring immediate response (albeit probably not nearly as heart-stopping as my recent personal experience). Those fires we encounter may be small, smoldering embers, and others may become raging infernos. Some, like my cooking adventure, turn out to be nothing more than fire drills.
How we choose to respond to these fires makes us different. While some may get themselves into a flurry of panic and frenzied hysteria while running for the comfort of a safer and more calming space, we stand up, reach for the tools we’re proficient with, and run toward the flames. As best-in-class marketers and communicators, we approach cautiously and deliberately but undaunted, steadfastly committed to containing that blaze and extinguishing it to bring order back to the world around us. That’s what makes us different. That’s what sets us apart. That’s what makes us best-in-class.
We’ve donned our gear several times throughout our careers and fought those fires with the focus and resiliency we’re known for. We can and should expect there are countless more blazes yet to fight. So put on those Nomex gloves, grab that fancy water bottle on your desk, and run toward the fire!
Disclaimer: You should never actually run toward a fire unless you’re trained to do so. Fire is inherently dangerous and its use in this post is metaphorical only and not intended to serve as instruction or guidance to actually place yourself or others in danger. Whew.
