“Through my own experience and through the hundreds of businesses and entrepreneurs I’ve worked with—many of whose stories appear in this book—I’ve realized that there is indeed a powerful formula for achieving never-ending progressive growth and sustained success: Toss your Plan B overboard and burn the boats.
What do I mean by “burn the boats”?
To accomplish something great, you have to give yourself no escape routes no chance to ever turn back. You throw away your backup plans and you push forward, no longer bogged down by the infinite ways in which we hedge our own successes. Over time, our primitive instincts have been supplanted by conventional wisdom that pushes us to make contingency plans. The words ‘You never know’ echo in our brains on an endless loop. We are so out of practice tapping into our own internal navigation systems that when we’re about to make a bold move, our first impulse is to undercut it with a backup plan. In other words, we no longer trust our instincts. Yet the act of building a safety net is precisely what forces you to need one. If you’re someone who’s worried you won’t succeed, you’ve already failed.
I’m living proof that the universe has no ceiling on ambition. If I’ve learned one thing over the past three decades—from dropping out of high school to get my GED in a bid to escape from poverty to landing on Shark Tank to help new entrepreneurs launch their careers—it’s that you don’t win when you give yourself the option to lose. Greatness doesn’t emerge from hedging, hesitating, or submitting to the naysayers that skulk in every corner of our lives.
I wouldn’t have accomplished anything if I hadn’t lived the Burn the Boats philosophy. Now, with this book, I’m ready to arm you with all the tools and tips to do exactly the same thing.”
~ Matt Higgins from Burn the Boats
Matt Higgins is a FASCINATING human being.
He was raised in poverty by a single mom, dropped out of high school at sixteen, then wound up getting his law degree from Fordham University School of Law and became the youngest press secretary to the mayor’s office in New York City history. Then he helped lead the effort to rebuild the World Trade Center site before becoming an executive for the New York Jets.
THEN he became a guest shark on Shark Tank, an executive fellow teaching at Harvard Business School, and has invested in some of America’s most beloved brands through RSE Ventures—the investment firm he co-founded.
In this book, he tells us how he did it while sharing a TON of inspiring stories about others who went ALL IN on their dreams. It’s fantastic. I highly recommend it. Get a copy here.
The sub-title of the book is “Toss Plan B Overboard and Unleash Your Full Potential.” That, of course, reminds me of the sub-title of OUR book: Areté: Activate Your Heroic Potential.
The book is PACKED with Big Ideas and I’m excited to share some of my favorites so let’s jump straight in!
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