Forget Viral. Focus on Contagious
There are few places more humbling than an airport bathroom at 2 AM, unless you’ve also tried sleeping in a hotel bed that’s clearly hosted more people than a minor-league baseball stadium.
I’ve been in both—more times than I’d like to admit—which is probably why I started to think of myself as immune. Not just to illness, but to everything. Germs. Bad luck. Even the after-effects of eating a tuna salad sandwich from a vending machine at a rest area near Monkey Run, Arkansas.
(Yes, I did that. On purpose. And I survived.)
So when I got sick last week, it felt like a betrayal. I didn't contract some exotic illness smuggled in from a far-flung jungle. It was a generic, ambitionless pathogen that wandered into my body, saw no resistance, and made itself at home.
That was the kicker. It wasn’t the virus that made me sick. It was the conditions that let it spread.
This point hit hard while I was curled up in my bed, wrapped in three blankets, and flipping through channels in a half-fevered daze. I landed on an episode of Naked and Afraid.
Two contestants, somewhere deep in the Brazilian rainforest, were trying to start a fire. They had flint. They had technique. Sparks flew with impressive regularity. But nothing caught. The wood was too damp. The air too wet. The fire didn’t fail because they lacked effort. It failed because the setting wasn't right.
Later that same day, I clicked over to the news. Wildfires in Canada were ripping through entire provinces. One spark, and forests went up like they were soaked in gasoline. Miles of dry brush, and a single ember was all it took.
Same ignitor. Different results.
That’s the part we miss.
Too often, we fixate on the spark. We want the post that “goes viral,” the headline that catches fire, the campaign that lights up a boardroom. But sparks are just the showy part. They’re dramatic, sure, but they’re not what makes things spread.
What makes something contagious—whether it’s a fire, a virus, or an idea—is the readiness of the environment. The humidity of the air. The dryness of the wood. The strength (or weakness) of the host.
If you want a fire to move, you don’t focus on the match. You dry the forest. You clear the canopy so the wind can carry the flames. You fill the ground with pine needles and dry brush and trees ready to catch. That’s what makes it run.
The same goes for ideas: if you want your message to spread, don’t obsess over crafting the perfect headline or pitch. Focus on where and how it lands. Find the people who are already open to hear it. Say it in words they can easily repeat. Remove anything that causes hesitation or confusion. Give them more than one reason to care—something they can feel, something they can remember, something they can share. Because ideas don’t spread just because they’re clever. They spread when the environment is ready to carry them.
Building A Tinderbox
Sparks without fuel go nowhere. If you want your work, your message, your offering to move through people, teams, or markets, don’t just work on the idea. Prepare the environment around it. Build A Tinderbox.
Here’s the short version:
Clear the Undergrowth: Make space. If your idea lands in a crowded, tangled space, it won’t move. Focus your message. Choose clear ground.
Dry the Kindling: Find the right moment. People need to be ready to hear your message. Meet them where they already are—mentally, emotionally, situationally.
Catch the Wind: Use the momentum. Don’t push your message uphill. Attach it to movements, trends, and moods already carrying people forward.
Spread Through the Canopy: Don’t do it alone. The fastest spread happens when others help carry your idea because it helps them say something valuable, too.
Watch the Burn Line: Study the spread. Track what caught and what didn’t. Let feedback shape what you send next. Influence grows from iteration.
Want to go deeper?
I’ve turned The Tinderbox into a downloadable strategy guide, complete with examples, prompts, and planning worksheets. Whether you’re sharing an idea, launching a service, or simply trying to get people to care, it will help you design for spread, not just delivery.
Ideas don’t just need ignition. They need direction.
A Tinderbox won’t make a bad idea great. But it will make a good one go further. It shifts your focus from what you’re saying to what others are ready to carry. From the spark to the forest. From viral potential to actual contagion.
Because your goal shouldn’t be to light something.
It should be to spread something.