Burning The Boats

As tale has it, when Cortés landed in South America, he instructed his captains to burn the massive ships they'd just sailed across the Atlantic on.

The "logic" being that if his team had no fallback plan, they'd be more committed to the mission they were on.

A surprising parallel came up this week between Cortés and a founder that I coach.

This founder was having a hard time focusing on one aspect of their business.

To me this happens when you don't see signals of success, and start doubting the correctness of the direction you're going in.

We've all been there, right?

Call it what you'd like: shiny object, ADHD, or just being over the wall you've been running into for the last 6 months straight.

We're human. And that's ok.

To me the question here is this:

When do you go radical and Burn The Boats, and when do you pivot?

Here's how I approach making this decision:

• Knowing what I know now, if this is successful, will I arrive at the goal I have for the business?
  • Cause it's possible that you're actually just going down the wrong road.
  • It's also possible that you're just one or two steps away from achieving what you want. Do the signs point the right way?
• Do I have the right people, technology, and process in place to make this happen?
  • We're building businesses, and this exact thing, in our exact business has never been done. We're putting the puzzle together while creating the pieces.
  • The smartest founders I know do NOT believe they are superman or superwoman...they can't do it all. But they know how to get the right people, tools, and resources to do the job. Do you have those right resources? Or are you trying to be Superman or Superwoman?
• What is 1 Thing (not 2 or 3 or 7), but One Thing, that if successful will change the trajectory of this initiative?
  • Back to our military analogy, great generals usually have one thing on which they believe the battle is won or lost. Your business might be similar.
  • One Thing is a lot easier to wrap your head around than the 27 other things that need to happen after/because of that.
  • Sometimes this is a sprint wrapped in a marathon...it can be discouraging to think of ALL of the things you have to do...better to think of just the next most important thing.

So, as you're facing the next big initiative in your business, apply these 3 questions, and hopefully they provide a bit of clarity around the actual situation you're in, and your path forward.