Lessons from the fire

Greetings friends! How are things on your end? I hope you are doing well!
As you may know, I bought a portable grill to make it easier to get to more jerk chicken gigs.

A rule of thumb is that you should always try your equipment before taking it out on gigs- that is ideal. However, life doesn’t always go exactly the way we plan. The carry cart didn’t arrive in time nor did the chalk coal so I had to skip that step and go to my bbq gig in faith so to speak.

As usual I marinated all the meat days before , secured transportation and got everything ready to go. You see, I did a previous bbq and I lit that fire up in minutes. Somehow this time around the chalk coal refused to be lit. We used paper, cardboard, lighters of different sizes and strengths. We even used a torch / burner. Nothing worked! I was getting frustrated and the people who initially started to help switched to criticizing. I soldiered on even as the passing negative comments grew. People who you thought should be more supportive only looked for excuses and they were vocal. The thought did cross my mind to pack up and exit stage left after about 90 minutes of constant fanning , blowing air, reshuffling of the pieces and disappointed would be customers kept leaving after hearing that the jerk chicken wasn’t ready yet.
In spite of these things I was encouraged a bit by total strangers who joined me in fanning and trying new things to start the fire. Finally after two hours, there was a little spark ⚡️ and I told them , “fan no more.” It was ready to go. Let me share my take always from this experience.

1. Always be prepared
   Just like how I took time to prepare the meats , I should have tested everything for my fire. Without proper preparation, we open ourselves up to stress and give the naysayers things to pick at.

2. Ignore the noise and stay the course
   There is a song that says “Along with the sunshine there’s got to be a little rain sometime.” It is in these times of unfavorable weather conditions or situations that we realize who our real teammates are. The ‘wagonist’ will abandon ship. There is a Jamaican expression which says “It’s your fish that needs to be fried.” Therefore, we have to push on and start that fire. Some strangers might come along give you a hand but if no one comes along to help , keep on fanning your flame!

1. Only you can put out your fire 🔥
   After two hours or so. The fire finally started. I did not have to add any more chalk coal to it . It burned for 4 hours straight! I had to think of ways to put out that flame. I still have a-lot of chalkcoal from that fire that I will use to start my next fire. In other words - don’t give up . Focus on your dreams and start your fire. People may intentionally or unintentionally dose your passion with material which may not be immediately flammable but keep striking that match or torch.

1. Tough starts can end beautifully
   To the surprise of everyone including me . People returned to buy all the jerk chicken I took. I thought wow, there are two other food spots here - I’m losing sales. How am I going to get rid of all this chicken? I didn’t have to deal with that- all the jerk chicken was sold. I don’t eat anything from the pig apparently I cook it well. All the jerk pork was sold. All the rice and peas went. All the fried chicken sold out Even a whole chicken I took along for my family and friends was sold. Some of the people who expected failure looked shock. If I gave up I would not have this experience to share. Walt Disney was fired because he was deemed unimaginative. Look at the empire he built. Oprah Winfrey was fired because she was seen as unfit for television. Look at her now. There are many other stories that we can look to for inspiration. Some of those stories are our own from years ago. Always remember that there are more positives than negatives in our lives. Unfortunately, the negatives always seem bigger than they really are. Let’s push through the darkness and press toward our goals . Forget what people think or have to say - let’s set our own landmarks and goals.
   Let’s start a fire 🔥