“You can’t start a fire without a spark.” – Bruce Springsteen.
In 1984 Bruce Springsteen released “Dancing in the Dark” one of his most famous songs. The lyrics include the line “You can’t start a fire without a spark.” He went on to release 21 studio albums and filled stadiums across the world for over six-decades. He recently sold the publishing rights to his back catalogue to Sony for a reported $500m. I suppose you could say Bruce not only knew how to use a spark to ignite a career, but perhaps more importantly, he knew how to keep it burning brightly over the long-term.
In a recent blog post Seth Godin, a US entrepreneur, author and business commentator brilliantly highlighted the use of sparks, or promotional hype used to launch or relaunch a product. He went on to compare sparks to the less glamourous commodity… kindling.
Perhaps there’s the need for a third essential here, the logs or firewood. Like sparks, kindling can only really be relied on in the initial stages to get the fire established and hopefully generate the heat that will encourage the firewood to keep the flames alive.
While it’s often the spark that gets all the attention, we need to be looking in the woodshed to see what is in reserve. When things get tough, is there enough resolve and resource to push through and maintain momentum. You need the capacity, conviction and commitment to your vision and values to keep the fire going long after the spark has finally fizzled out.
So, bringing this nearer home, I suggest Stewardship Wealth’s spark was the radical idea to create a business that was a power of good, not simply to chase profits. The drive or kindling came from the shared conviction that with the right people, skills and energy, it was possible. The firewood is representative of the growing team, and the diverse range of skills and personalities that combine to maintain our focus on service improvement.
Our vision came in six parts serving as milestones, mapping out our purpose, and measuring our progress. As a reminder, here they are:
- To give generously: At least 10% of total income
- To employ: offering a career opportunity in financial planning
- To train: providing professional qualifications, and personal development
- To send: training and preparing those wishing to start their own business
- To build: a local centre of excellence shared with church and community
- To gift: the business to a charity to invest future business profits
So, we had the spark, gathered the kindling, and over the past seven years we have been adding in more firewood through recruiting and training quality talent. We have also invested significantly in our systems and training to ensure we are fully equipped to maintain our growth, achieving our goals and ensuring our clients both current and future enjoy industry leading service.
Our progress to date has been significant, but our ambition is to do more. With your support we are confident we have all the fuel we need to keep the fire burning brightly long into the future.