“Be the candle! It is your job to be the light in the darkness. You have to sniff out the toxic, bring light to the darkness, and move on to focus back on the light.” – Clay Clark
This week, I am quoting Clay Clark, my boss and one of my business coach mentors, because he taught me a very valuable lesson this week. When he first said, be the candle, he paused, I thought he was going to tell me he needs to see more production, either from me, my coworkers, or from my clients. I thought he was going to tell me that a business coach has to light a fire under a derriere from time-to-time. Yikes!
I realized this week that I am a coach, but I am also, sometimes, the candle in the darkness.
Luckily, that was not the purpose of his statement at all. I business coach clients every day. Every day, we have a great conversation. We laugh, we work, we assign action items, discuss, solve and progress. However, I never actually stopped to put myself in their shoes. I work with entrepreneurs every day. To be honest, not a single one of my clients is just kicked back sipping Mai Tai’s in Cancun every day living the life of luxury. Although my clients are very successful, they are hard workers; very hard workers. Because of this, they deal with a lot of crap. We call them burning fires here.
I realized this week that I am a coach, but I am also, sometimes, the candle in the darkness. For some, I may be the only person they can go to who is treating them like the employee for a change. Maybe it is nice from time-to-time to let someone else make the decisions for them while they just do what they are told for a change. Maybe it is nice to meet a face who doesn’t want something from you, but instead is your biggest cheerleader wanting you to win as much as you want yourself to win. For some clients, maybe it is hard for them to believe that a person has pure intentions to help them reach their goals while holding them accountable to do so. Maybe, you are the candle in a world of darkness where you receive false invoices that, when paid, will release your trademark name to some scam company.
Often, I hear comments from the rest of the world saying things like, “You’re too peppy.”, “Are you always this happy?”, or my favorite, “You are way too happy for me right now.” Fine. I’ll take it! I have absolutely no problem working hard every day to be the candle; the light in the darkness. Am I always the candle in my own life? Absolutely not. Nobody is perfect or on point all of the time. But for one hour, every week, for any of my clients, I will be that candle every time.
“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.”
– Matthew 5:14
