I got this great Metaphor from Susan “The Coach” Castle this week.

Susan was recently accepted into the Referrals for Life community from Certified Networker. She used the below metaphor to explain her decision to apply.

A member of a certain church, who previously had been attending services regularly, stopped going.

After a few weeks, the minister decided to visit him. It was a chilly evening. The minister found the man at home alone, sitting before a blazing fire. Guessing the reason for his minister’s visit, the man welcomed him, led him to a big chair near the fireplace, poured him a dram and waited. The minister made himself comfortable but said nothing. In the grave silence, he contemplated the play of the flames around the burning logs.

After some minutes, the minister took the fire tongs, carefully picked up a brightly burning ember and placed it to one side of the hearth all alone. Then he sat back in his chair, still silent. The host watched all this in quiet fascination. As the one lone ember’s flame diminished, there was a momentary glow and then its fire was no more. Soon it was cold and “dead as a doornail.” Not a word had been spoken since the initial greeting.

Just before the minister was ready to leave, he picked up the cold, dead ember and placed it back in the middle of the fire. Immediately it began to glow once more with the light and warmth of the burning coals around it.

My question to you is. What are you doing with the 2nd and 3rd Core Competencies?

2 Staying engaged
3 Training your network

Doing the 1st Core competency attending the training is only the first step.