Burning Your Boat VS Playing it Safe

[RBefort]

To hell with all this playing safe BS. Burn the FN boats!

I burned the boats in 1997 with a wife and three kids and wouldn't have it any other way. Guess what? I didn't burn the boats because I had a fastlane plan. I burned them because I was tired of the mediocrity and hated the feeling of having no control over my life.

Burned a bunch more boats 8 months ago with a big move across the country. It didn't seem smart on paper to do so. Lots of people questioned my decision. A few are still upset with me (us) for doing what we did. A favorite quote of mine is by Steve Jobs... "You have limited time. Don't waste it living someone else's life." It's been one of the best decisions of our lives.

BURN THE BOATS!

BUT...

Don't stop there.







[Notice I'm not saying "it depends" or '"what feels right to you" or "if this, then that", "blah blah blah" ]

Sorry if I missed a post from you before, so feel free to just copy it in instead of replying....

After burning boats, how did your daily routine change? You said u didnt have fastlane plan, so how did you structure each day when you became free of the job? How long after burning boats did you find a need that brought in income?

 

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[snowbank]

After burning boats, how did your daily routine change?

I know this wasn't directed at me but mine was:

Work all day/night anytime I wasn't sleeping. I didn't have a 'routine' at the time, but I was basically working, researching, reading, etc... anytime I was awake.

I moved across the country to buy real estate, didn't know anyone really, and was staying in a tiny studio apartment. I didn't even have a bed. I had a pull out sofa, and a small wooden table that I found on the porch when I moved in that I used for my computer desk. I put myself in a situation where all I could do was grind.

I played poker, searched for real estate deals, read stuff to learn RE/business like 16 hours/day everyday. There were no distractions.

There's a lot of entrepreneurs who say they "want it bad", yet they somehow still have time for hanging with friends in low value activities, tv shows, movies, going on dates.

I'm not saying people should give up those things, but if someone wants to go all in/burn boats and really "wants it bad", I think it's comical when they're still doing all those things. They're only fooling themselves that they're working hard.

 

[Get Right]

Pile up all your khakis in the boat first.

Light it up.

 

[AllenCrawley]

After burning boats, how did your daily routine change? You said u didnt have fastlane plan, so how did you structure each day when you became free of the job? How long after burning boats did you find a need that brought in income?

You bet my daily routine changed!

No real structure to speak of. Honestly I was winging it, lol. Well, I guess you could say getting up at the crack of dawn and grinding it out was a structure.

I went from working in a warehouse driving a forklift AND working a part-time job at UPS at night to writing mortgage loans in one day (no prior experience in the mortgage industry). A family friend owned a mortgage company and I meet with him on one of my days off to see what it would take to do the same thing. I learned that there was not enough mortgage originators to keep up with the demand.

Within one week of that meeting I quit my j.o.b. and started. I was self employed and responsible 100% for my own revenue. I hustled like my life and my family's lives depended on it (because it was). I worked 12-16 hours a day 7 days a week. I closed my first mortgage in 2 weeks of starting. I made $2,052. I remember it like it was yesterday. I made a little more in 2 weeks than I did in a month with my old job. Within 6 months I was making an average of $8000 per month. Huge difference. Huge jump in income. Over the course of my first year in the business my highest earning month was a little over $16,000.

Four years later I co-founded a full-fledged mortgage brokerage.

Within a year and a half or so of that I started buying real estate to fix and flip.

Within 1 year from that point I sold my share of the mortgage brokerage to my partner and went full time in REI.

About 4 years later I was on the verge of bankruptcy. I partnered with my accountant on a RE deal and it turned bad. (A train wreck of story for another time)

To keep from going into bankruptcy I quickly switched gears and started a home improvement and handyman company. I embraced the grind on another level and within 3 months was back on our feet financially.

No safety nets.

Burned the boats.

Sometimes someone else burned the boats.

I wouldn't have it any other way.

@snowbank approaches this from a logical way and I respect that but all logic was thrown out the window in my situations.

 

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[djax06]

I graduated Uni Sept 2012 --- about $30k of student debt plus another $5k of consumer debt.

Got a career for $60k a year but hated the fact my time wasn't mine.

Bought a one way ticket to Bali in Feb 2013 (I posted it here somewhere) for an Oct 2013 departure.

All the above debt, plus $10k cash in the bank account. Approximate runway of 1 year in SE Asia.

Been here since Oct 8th and Feb 17th 2014 was my first week where I made $500+ profit every day.

Could I have done that if I stayed in Canada, putting pesos in the bank? Probably not.

This shit definitely deserves all my time.

Amazing things can happen when your days are spent towards developing highly useful and scalable skill sets.

Burn Burn Burn.

 

[PeeVee]

The end result for whatever we do, is to be happy. So if a person is happy with the job he does then is'nt he successful in that perspective. Is there a need to leave the job for the fastlane. When it does not guarantee him happiness?

With all due respect, this is a place where most people seek freedom from a job and do not find happiness in that lifestyle (slowlane). I would recommend that person delete their account to this forum because chances are there isn't much they are going to learn about being happy and fulfilled in a job.

 

[CT4]

This is what i'm having trouble with at the moment, I'm working a very cushy office job for a mining company making good money and saving heaps but every day i'm feeling more and more inclined to just call it quits and start hustling.

My main concern is i've studied 4 years for the job i have, if i leave now, after 2 years, i can pretty much say goodbye to working in this industry again as all jobs require min. 5 years experience. I dont want to have to come back to it but i guess its my safety blanket if things go wrong.

I'm trying to learn as much as i can before i take the leap but ultimately it will have to be done soon

 

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[DrkSide]

This is what i'm having trouble with at the moment, I'm working a very cushy office job for a mining company making good money and saving heaps but every day i'm feeling more and more inclined to just call it quits and start hustling.

My main concern is i've studied 4 years for the job i have, if i leave now, after 2 years, i can pretty much say goodbye to working in this industry again as all jobs require min. 5 years experience. I dont want to have to come back to it but i guess its my safety blanket if things go wrong.

I'm trying to learn as much as i can before i take the leap but ultimately it will have to be done soon

What are you doing now to build up a side business?

I really want to just burn the boats and go at it. My main mental obstacle is the fact that we will be moving in around 8 months and will need to show income to purchase a house. If I quit now we won't be able to buy and will have to rent. We looked at renting but I can buy for $300-$500 cheaper per month in the area that we are looking at.

 

[CT4]

What are you doing now to build up a side business?

I really want to just burn the boats and go at it. My main mental obstacle is the fact that we will be moving in around 8 months and will need to show income to purchase a house. If I quit now we won't be able to buy and will have to rent. We looked at renting but I can buy for $300-$500 cheaper per month in the area that we are looking at.

Unfortunately as far as side business goes I'm still researching by talking to people and reading as I'm fairly new to a lot of the concepts that get discussed on here.

 

[RBefort]

Thanks to all who shared their burning boats stories! Love em!

 

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[Chadi]

If you quit on Friday and you're not sure what you will be doing next Monday (or the next day for that matter!) then you're not ready to quit.

I've "burned" the boats a couple of times in my life and I can tell you from experience that you have to be honest with yourself.

If you're burning the boats because you're too lazy or complacent to figure out your next move then your whole burning the boat move is a weak attempt at evading your current reality and might not serve you well. If on the other hand you have a couple of ideas/plans in the works and you've been consistently making progress to the point where your job is becoming a major hurdle to your advancement then by all means you're ready to jump and move on.

Savings will come in handy too as you'll need a clear head and the least amount of negative energy and thoughts. You need to also properly plan and budget your expenses (major belt tightening). Don't be tempted to "invest" into things that you don't need (that new laptop that will "increase" your productivity or that new desk that will complement your new working from home setup).

The mere fact that you're asking this question indicates to me that you have the right mindset, it remains a question of planning and timing.

Good luck

 

[Andy Black]

Sometimes someone else burned the boats.

So true.

 

[Andy Black]

Another "burn your boats" thread:

• www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/burn-those-F*cking-boats.68928

 

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[Arrived2015]

I come to ask what the forums general viewpoint of this topic is?

Play it safe,

Or burn your boats.

So @niftyg it's now 2017!

What did you decide?

My viewpoint is relaying this adapted quote by William G.T. Shedd (1820 to 1894) :

“A ship is safe in the harbor,

BUT

that's not what ships are built for.”

 

[dave773]

Nobody mentioned MJ's WADM?

 

[AllenCrawley]

Nobody mentioned MJ's WADM?

HelpMyDecision.com - Get Help Making Tough Decisions

 

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[G-Man]

HelpMyDecision.com - Get Help Making Tough Decisions

Don't we have rules around here about asking the internet to make major life choices for you?

Also, rep++ for the mortgage underwriting story. Glad this thread got bumped up somehow.

EDIT: Just realized it got bumped by @Andy Black, and he mentioned it to me in another thread. Arithmetic has never been my thing.

 

[domefs]

That's exactly the decision I need to make within the next few weeks. My point of view NOW
is to find a job that requires less time and pays enough to cover all your bills, so you can build
your fastlane without pressure.