Ep #8 Little Balls of Fire: The Power of Small Mistakes

We have all been there, how one seemingly tiny error ends up setting everything on fire. 

A single tweet from Justine Sacco set her career and the Twitterverse, alight. That was in 2015. She posted a racist comment then boarded a 12-hour flight to South Africa. Justine landed to meet the chaos including the loss of her job. 

 The use of racist slurs along with its denial, plus Mark Fuhrman's refusal to answer a pertinent question changed the outcome of the O.J Simpson trial. 

 Derek Chauvin, a single thought to kneel on George Floyd's neck resulted in his death and worldwide protests saying what should be pretty obvious, that Black Lives Matter. #blacklivesmatter

 Throughout history, we see how a matchstick can set a forest on fire. Whether it is a single word, a social media post or a seemingly irrelevant opinion, it would appear that it is the little balls of fires, not the great ones that wreak the most havoc. 

 In this episode, we look at how mindsets and beliefs act as receptors just waiting for the right opportunity or fuel to set things ablaze. 

 But not all fires come to destroy, some come to clear a path for you to go on to greatness. This is what happened for Steve Harvey when he announced Miss Columbia as the winner of the Miss Universe Pageant in 2015. 

 There is a pivotal moment when the fire has been lit, where if you act quickly enough, you can change the course of things. 

1. Patience: Wait for the urge to pass. 

2. Know your mindsets- and uproot the wrong ones. Mindsets or receptors are waiting for the right moment to cause an explosion. The wrong word spoken by your boss. The ideal situation for a crisis. You cannot change or control external occurrences, but you have power over your own response. 

3. Humility: Choose integrity over popularity and admit your mistake, just like Steve Harvey did. 

Have you noticed it isn't the big fires that announce their presence that can ruin things? Its often the little ones, the ones we ignore that change the trajectory of our lives.

 

Bible references:

 

Genesis 4:6 

Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”

 

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