Wednesday, 23 March 2011

Burn Your Boats

Have you ever noticed how the pressure of having your back up against the wall can actually produce great achievements?

Let me ask you this, when you’re complacent and things are easy, do you perform at your best?  It's human nature to take the path of least resistance but does greatness ever comes by taking the easy way? Of course not. Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey, did not take the path of least resistance to get where they were and are.


In one of Robin Sharma’s books he tells a story of a famed Spanish Conquistador Hernando Cortes who landed on the shores of Veracruz, Mexico in 1519. He wanted his small army to conquer the land for Spain but faced an uphill battle: an aggressive enemy, brutal disease, and scarce resources. As they marched inland to do battle, Cortes ordered one of his lieutenants back to the beach with a single instruction: “Burn the boats.”

When faced with a challenge, remember this story, when failure is not an option and you absolutely must win, it’s amazing what you can accomplish.

No comments:

Post a Comment