102. Don’t Burn the Boats

Legend has it that when the Vikings landed on a new territory, the leader would command his troops to burn the boats they arrived in. Why? To force total commitment and eliminate any idea of return. It was success or death.

No turning back. Figure it out or perish.

Today, you might hear the phrase “burn the boats” as advice from social media gurus when they attempt to sell you their course on how to achieve unimaginable success. I get it, and for a long enough time to form an opinion on it, I bought in.

Start the business, quite the job, put yourself out there, and don’t give yourself anything to fall back on. As long as there’s a safety net there to catch you, you’ll need it. Honestly, to a guy like me, it makes sense. Heck, it worked for Bruce Wayne.

The fallback plan was holding him back from saving Gotham. Only when The Dark Knight eliminated the option of turning back could he rise and live his destiny. It’s a powerful scene, and it makes for a great character we can all learn from.

Except I’m not Batman.

A safety net can absolutely be the difference between being able to achieve your goals or not, but from where I’m standing, you’re better off with it than without.

What I’m saying is to find your parachute before you jump. The whole notion of figure it out later and hope you find the draw string before you plummet to your death is being overworked in the media these days, and it’s misleading to anyone with big hairy audacious goals.

Years ago, when I first began reading the types of books I frequently mention here, I drank it all in. Authors like Jim Collins, Stephen Covey, Napoleon Hill and Robert Kiyosaki had me believing I was the second coming of Batman. Burn the boats, commit, jump, find the parachute later and it’ll all work out. I believed it, I lived it, and I want to save you some of the trouble I’ve had by telling you to hold on a minute because it’s not that simple.

Now I’m not here to throw myself a pity party. In fact, it’s because of my reckless choices that I feel uniquely capable of shedding light on this topic. There’s no doubt that the skills, relationships and opportunities I now have are a direct result of a burn the boats mentality. However, knowing what I do now, I wouldn’t advise anyone to do what I did the past 6 years.

I’d tell someone to do it better.

Today, I won’t get into specifics, but if you ever want to get into it, I’d love to have a coffee with you and share stories and lessons we’ve learned along the way. For now, just think about it.

A baseball player will have their highest batting average with no outs and no strikes. That’s not my option. That’s a fact. Offensive performance at home plate is superior when it doesn’t matter if you swing and miss. Batting average drastically drops with 2 strikes. The numbers tell us that we do not perform at our best when our backs are against the wall. Yes, there are plenty of other strategic factors that change with a 2 strike count, but that’s part of the reason it’s harder to perform.

There’s so much more to consider when your back is against the wall. Every possible scenario has to be analyzed and the exact right decision has to be made because everything is screwed up if you make one wrong move. This is when over analyzing happens.

You don’t have to over analyze whether to swing at the first pitch with no outs. You get to collect information. Once the count is full and there’s no going back, you better be confident in your next move or you’re bound to let someone down.

With a safety net, the stakes are lower, and when the stakes are lower, you can collect more information and make a better move. You can swing and miss and then swing again. Is this sounding a bit contradictory to what you’ve heard? Maybe even what you’ve heard from me?

Influencers are yelling at us to start before we’re ready and just go for it. That’s great. I’m all for it, that is if the stakes are low. That is if you won’t plummet to your death if it doesn’t work out.

Practically speaking, quitting your job, starting a family, going all in on your side hustle or applying for a masters degree are not things I’d recommend doing and then figuring it out later. The stakes are too high. Think through what’s going to happen in both the ideal world and also the less than ideal.

When the time comes, you know how I feel about going all in. It will be necessary, but when the time is right, you won’t need to burn the boats, and you’ll have your parachute ready to go.

It’s not because you’re not committed, it’s because those living out their potential aren’t forced to. Don’t put yourself in a position where there are no options. We’re all dealt a set of cards and there are only so many moves we can make, so don’t let something force your hand.

There are a lot more first pitch solo home runs then there are 2 strike walk off grand slams. Batman hits those in every movie, but as unfortunate as it is, again, I’m not Batman.

All I can do is refer you to Ed Mylett’s favourite Chinese Proverb: To know the road ahead, ask those coming back.

I’m telling you that I could have used a parachute now and again when I was busy lighting a flame to my old boats. Maybe I wouldn’t have used them, but maybe someone else could have.

Maybe you can use my experience to help you with yours. I hope you can, because I don’t want you to do what I did. I want you to have it better.

At the same time, if you’re reading this thinking maybe you shouldn’t have burned the boats, consider yourself lucky, because you get to learn the lessons on behalf of the rest of us that didn’t go through what you’re dealing with.

Personally, as much as I believe I should have done things differently these last 6 years, I’m glad I didn’t. It’s one of those stories that I wouldn’t wish on anyone, but I’m still glad I lived it because of the arsenal I’m now equipped with.

So go for it and shoot for your wildest dreams, just have a plan B. Or at least make plan A require a solid base that any other plan could be built on.

There’s more to say on this topic, and there’s more I will say, but maybe not until my book comes out. Until then, I’m happy to discuss details with you over a hot cup of coffee.

— Cody

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See you next Thursday.

Interested in chatting in person over a couple steaming cups? Send me a text!