Episode 88: Burn the Boats

Show Notes

Episode Transcript

Jesse P. Gilmore:
You are now listening to Leverage for Growth. Hey everybody, this is Jesse P. Gilmore, founder of Niche in Control and creator of Leverage for Growth. Welcome to the daily leverage edition. Today’s topic is this, burn the boats. Sit back, relax, welcome to today’s daily leverage. So the saying of burning boats or burning the boats really comes from Vikings and how they used to sail their boats to a new land that they wanted to conquer. And what they would do is the moment that they got onto land, they would burn their boats because ultimately they didn’t want to ever think about retreating or losing the battle that they were going after. And this is an example of what extreme commitment is. And in order for you to achieve what you want out of your agency, majority of agency owners want to create an agency that they can either pass on to someone else, like their kids legacy. or sell it eventually and be able to successfully exit, or have the agency be able to sustain and grow without them. Regardless of which one of these kind of end goals that they’re going after, you need to embrace greatness as opposed to just having a good agency. You need to shift towards being great. And this is the most needed shift in an entrepreneur’s mind. And the shift from going from good to great ultimately is the difference and what defines agencies that win and win big as opposed to those that are just comfortable where they are. And the mindset of agency greatness, this idea of burning boats and embracing extreme commitment basically allows you to have traits like resilience, adaptability, and having a growth mindset where either you are succeeding or learning. There is no failure unless you’re quitting. And when you start to look at the goals that you have as something that can be achievable regardless of what you choose to be your goal, you need to be able to set ambitious goals, things that seem very, you know, almost impossible right now. And when you lean into the impossibility of the goal, you realize that it would be impossible if things didn’t change, if you didn’t have resilience. or adaptability or this continuous learning mindset. So when you embrace ambitious goals, it allows you to aim high and you start working towards these goals. Cool thing is, is in the last few episodes, I talked a lot about long-term commitments and being able to minimize distractions and this is ultimately what leads towards extreme commitment and also the achievement of what seemingly is impossible. And in order for you to do this, you ultimately need to embrace sacrifice. Doesn’t mean you’re sacrificing other areas of your life. It just means that right now you might need to do things that you don’t see an immediate result from. And if you embrace, like, the long hours or the delayed gratification or even leaning into the difficult decisions that you might have to make, firing an employee or having crucial conversations with clients that don’t fit, And as you continue to make these sacrifices, knowing that delayed gratification and extreme commitment allows you to achieve the impossible, you basically are on a path, and that path is leading towards what you truly want. On that path, it’s really important to have a very good, supportive system of people, and both from a personal perspective and also a professional perspective, to allow you to maintain the extreme commitment. And this way, if others are kind of in the same kind of journey as you are, you don’t feel like you’re alone and you can lean on each other for lessons, which allows you to achieve the impossible and stay committed when the going gets tough. So I encourage you to embrace extreme commitment, burn the boats and be able to just lean into your pursuit of greatness. And there are… many rewards that come from just having the commitment where you’re 100% in on the agency journey and what you actually want out of life and business. And by doing so, you have dedication and focus and perseverance when the going gets tough. So why is this important? Many times, we as entrepreneurs, we might choose a business strategy and go at it for a season. When in actuality what we’re doing is we’re being only like half in or we’re committing only 80%, right? And then the moment something looks as though it’s not going to work or you might start shifting your strategy, which ultimately makes it a lot worse. Being extremely committed and burning the boats allows you to be all in and be able to find the lessons and the gifts out of the setbacks and struggles. And by doing so, you allow the impossible goal to become possible. So now it is time for the daily leverage. So where in your world, whether in your life or business, have you been avoiding extreme commitment? Is it in your life with your health and body? Is it in your life with your spirituality or self-direction? Is it in your relationships with your spouse, partner, or kids? Is it in your business, finances, or team? And once you’ve located where you have been avoiding commitment and you know what you need to change, my question to you is this, what are you willing and able to do about it today? That is the end of the Daily Leverage. This is Jesse P. Gilmore. You’ve been listening to the Leverage for Growth podcast. If you’re enjoying these daily leverage and agency leverage episodes, make sure to subscribe on Apple or Spotify now.