Burn the Ships

Hernando Cortez was a Spanish Conquistador who landed in Mexico on the shores of the Yucatan in 1519 with the goal of seizing the glorious treasures held by the Aztecs. Cortez was 100% committed and focused on this mission and his story is legendary, he was an excellent motivator and persuaded over 500 soldiers and 100 sailors to sail with him from Spain to Mexico.

Cortez and his fleet of 11 ships arrived on the shores of the Yucatan facing one of the greatest challenges in history, they were a small group of soldiers attempting to overthrow a large and powerful empire on their own turf, an empire that had been in power for over 600 years.

There was only one method that could make Cortez’ men succeed in their mission, he needed their complete trust and commitment, he needed them to go for all or nothing. To achieve this he famously took away the option of failure for his men, he gave a pre-battle speech on the shore and finally shouted “burn the ships!” to his men, his men resisted at first not knowing what to think, but then he said “if we are going home, we are going home in their ships”.

His men then burnt all their own ships and now found themselves in a win or die situation, the commitment level of his men was now elevated to a whole new level, higher than any of the men or Cortez himself could have imagined.

Cortez and his men then defeated the Aztecs and took the treasure home in their new ships, they had managed to succeed where everyone else had failed for the past 6 centuries. They won because they had no escape and no backup plan, if they didn’t win the battle they would die and had no option to retreat to their ships, thus elevating their will to win to an incredibly high level.

To succeed in life and business you need to have a similar attitude to that of Cortez and his men, they didn’t have a fallback position or any other options so gave their total 100% commitment and came out winners. Imagine what it would be like fighting against men with that level of motivation.

You need to take away your excuses and crutches if you want to be highly successful as these will often stop you achieving your goals, identify the ships in your life that are stopping your dreams from becoming a wonderful reality and burn them.

If we know our ship is always going to be there then it is human instinct to make a run for it and escape when we appear to be losing a battle, the path of least resistance. This can apply to any aspect of your life, whether it be using old marketing methods that don’t work simply because you’ve always done them or staying in a job you hate because you’re already working there and it’s easier than changing.

If you really want to achieve your dreams you need to remove that fallback position and give your dream your 100% commitment, that is what Cortez and his men did and that is why the mission was a success. Commitment is the foundation of success and no accomplishment has been achieved without it, focus on your commitment and your dreams can become a reality.