Burn the boats
Ancient Greek soldiers were notorious for setting their boats aflame once beached and offloaded. A psychological tactic and symbolic act of refusal to surrender, they knew they may lose their lives, but they would never retreat. Their commitment to victory is legendary. Believing that you will be victorious under any circumstances is a big part of succeeding in unto itself. The business lesson here is less dramatic but equally important; if you resign defeat by a challenge or secede pursuit via self-destruction, then you were tracked for failure before even stepping foot on the battlefield.
Due to the recent economic uncertainties, I have heard many people retreating and admitting defeat. As soon as times get marginally tight, they convince themselves they can’t make money nor raise the required capital to survive — at least not at their present cash flow expenditure rate.
Burn the boats. No one leaves until we start to succeed at the task we set out to complete. If someone complains, fire them. You only need true believers on your mission. The extra supplies can be saved for soldiers that are willing to see the mission through. The decision to stay and fight is final, end of story. Taking this stance when you embark on a challenge or have to overcome unbelievable odds will provide the will needed to complete the task. When you succeed, you’ll have a newfound respect for yourself and the people with whom you teamed up. This becomes a true sense of accomplishment that you can invoke the next time a major challenge is presented.
Over a year ago, New Leaders faced difficult challenges that threatened to put us out of business. Robert and I decided to burn the boats. We opted to stay and fight while part of the team quickly retreated. We vowed to push as hard as we could, and spend every penny in the production of as many assets as possible. In that one year alone, we launched our new site, revolutionized our process, wrote hundreds of pages of content, launched several products, and quickly and affordably served every client. One day at a time, one page at a time, we earned our success. When we looked down the barrel of defeat, we said to ourselves,“You’ll have to pry the keyboards from our cold, dead hands.” Without willingness to stay and fight, the New Leaders of today would not exist. When you have nothing left to lose, only then do you have what you need to carry on; the motivation to stop at nothing because the alternative is defeat — and that is never an option. Words of a mad man? Maybe. Failure? Absolutely not.
Ask yourself what kind of leader you are. Do you automatically retreat when a difficult challenge is in front of you, or do you stay and fight? If you hesitate on the answer then you may want to follow someone else who is willing to light your boat on fire.
This work is licensed through Creative Commons.
Posted on Nov 12, 2008 by Kevin Milden
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