Burning Your Boat VS Playing it Safe

[JasonR]

Burn the boats. Give yourself no other option.

Ask yourself, do you want to be a successful entrepreneur? Look any successful businessman - they have ALL taken risks. Some have what it takes, others don't.

Take a risk, and burn your boats. Give yourself no other option. A safety net exists, even if you can't see it. Have faith in yourself, and you will succeed. Some how. Some way. So, jump.

If I can see a commonality among people who were searching for success, and those that got it, is that they burned their boats. They went ALL IN.

Be a risk taker.

 

[IceCreamKid]

The Ultimate Step-By-Step Secret That The Most Successful Businessmen In History Understand For Developing The Focus Of A High Powered Laser: REVEALED!

FREE training reveals how thousands of zombies went from zero to $1M in just 12 months. Register now to see the most life altering picture that will reveal the "missing 2-step link" that will transform you from zombie to wealthy almost overnight!(seats are limited).

Lose the job.

 

[AllenCrawley]

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" ]

 

[snowbank]

Maybe I'm just making excuses

this

look, decide what you want, and do THAT.

every aspiring entrepreneur is just that, aspiring to be one. the very tiny % of guys who go after it make 0 excuses.

most aspiring entrepreneurs are askholes. askhole is someone who asks for advice then never does anything with it or does the opposite. the one's who aren't askholes and will execute will make a lot of money.(this isn't directed at you, just speaking in general)

i gave one entrepreneur from b+p advice that he should attend a conference that would be beneficial for him. 99% of people would say "cool" and then not do anything. it'd be easy to say, "it's too expensive, it's too late notice, what if i don't learn anything", etc...

the next day he had a flight booked.

after a party one night he strolls in and starts talking about all the people he met. i was like, "who are those people?" it was my party and he knew a bunch of people i didn't even know!! he came here w/ a purpose, and made it happen. instead of enjoying the delicious drinks like most people, he was working the room meeting everyone.

after 1 week of networking/meeting the right people, he's probably more connected than 99% of people on this forum.... at age 20.



Decide what you want, and set up your life in a way so everything you do is related to accomplishing that goal.

 

[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.

 

[Kak]

I have not had a job since age 19. I never experienced the cushy office job with benefits and a 70k per year salary. Because of this I was able to accept my business making 1500 per month for over a year without looking for a job. I knew that I wanted to be an entrepreneur and made it happen regardless of the fact I could get more in a job. Make sacrifices. Keep yourself free. Only a business is scalable.

 

[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.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[AllenCrawley]

Burn baby, burn.

 

[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.

 

[rogen]

I burned my boats, but I stopped there. Im doing it wrong. When you burn the boat's dont forget to do stuff

 

[snowbank]

The headline says it all, what does everybody think of this topic.

There are two groups:

Play it Safe:
Work your day job and your fast lane on the side, eventually fast lane income exceeds day job and you ease out of it slowly.

Burning Boats:
Quit, cut ties right now. Go full bore on your business and either sink or swim like you've never swam before.

I am sure many of you have faced this choice, or face it on daily basis.


Personally, I have low expenses, not much money in the first place, and an extremely erratic job with no set schedule that absolutely saps the life out of me. I want to burn my boats, I feel like I could push myself beyond what I ever have; but nobody in my life would encourage me on a choice like that so I find it difficult to decide to pull the trigger and wander off into the unknown.

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

Play it safe,

Or burn your boats.

in 1 short paragraph, what is your business?

if it's any good, in your shoes I would 100% go all in.

if it's not good, you shouldn't.

in your shoes, if it's good, there's zero upside to playing it safe. simplest EV play ever

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[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

 

[craig1928]

Very dependent on situation, a childless 20-something year old is going to give you a radically different answer than a 50 year old with 4 kids

 

[Silverhawk851]

Jump from the nest and learn how to fly on your way down.

It's How nature does it

 

[mgore714]

Unless your fastlane roadmap is currently full-time then I'd play it safe. Everyone talks about taking huge risks, but it's not risk that builds companies and fortunes over time. What builds fortunes is consistent returns.

Read Great by Choice and understand the 20-mile march. Companies that try to make over 20% returns in a year eventually fail. Companies that aim only for 20% and do so consistently are the ones that are still around and going strong today.

What in your life will get you that 20% return? Is it working your job, taking income from that and applying it to your fastlane plan -- that honestly just takes 10 hours of your time a week? Or is it quitting, becoming cash strapped, and wondering how to fill your week with work?

I recommend you listen to Davin Hansson who founded Basecamp before making a decision: http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2351

 

[Get Right]

Pile up all your khakis in the boat first.

Light it up.

 

[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.

 

[smarty]

Burn the boats and light a fire under your @$$ for 1 year.

 

[AllenCrawley]

Nobody mentioned MJ's WADM?

HelpMyDecision.com - Get Help Making Tough Decisions

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Lakeview]

I think it is a personal decision. Personal situations dictate what they need to live. You need to have a responsibility to yourself. I do however believe that when you play it safe, you should explore other methods to bring in your minimum required income to develop your path to freedom.

 

[AllenCrawley]

I'll just leave this right here...

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/my-1000th-post-lose-the-job-now.45141/

 

[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.”

 

[MisterBHZ]

I burned the boats. Hell, I even burned the docks.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Mohammed Hamza]

What if a person loves a job instead of having a business? Would you still insist him to start a business( related to his interests)?

I personally am totally confused. Right now I'm in high school. My dad had a shoe manufacturing business. But due to heavy losses it was closed down. So now he has given the two factories on rent. Thats how were making a living. My dad wants me to take a job because business is too risky according to him. Now I would love to start a new business but I also want to become a pilot because I have always been fascinated by planes. But to become a pilot ot would require a huge amount of investment approx: $100,000.

Is it worth the investment?

 

[tafy]

All comes down to the fastlane plan...

Good plan = quit

How do you know your fastlane idea is good or not? Play it safe until it starts to grow momentum then quit.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[brob742]

Decide what you want, and set up your life in a way so everything you do is related to accomplishing that goal.

YES.

As my boys the Avett Brothers sing in the song Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise:
"When nothing is owed or deserved or expected,
And your life doesn't change by the man that's elected,
If you're loved by someone, you're never rejected
Decide what to be and GO be it"

Another one that Hemingway once said strikes home for me:
"If you're a writer, declare yourself the best writer! But you're not as long as I'm around unless you want to put the gloves on and settle it."
(this one might have been a movie quote, but either way, the principle is sound!)

Point is, if you're going to be an entrepreneur BE an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs don't have jobs.

Simple as that.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[RogueInnovation]

Sidewalker mentality has to go
BUT
You need to prioritise revenue streams effectively so you don't sink (this is true always) so there is no need to jump ship early.

6 months to a year should be spent on your first biz plan imo, it grows your biz muscles, keep work casual during that period and then make sure you get off the crutches when your biz is staring you in the face (you don't want your work to be a hidey hole you crawl up into to escape what you gotta face). Do not burn bridges, keep good relationships, cuz you never know when you might need a handshake or a bailout for a bit

The choice of leaving your job isn't THAT crucial, its the mindset of tending your garden first that is crucial.
Keep yourself honest, grow your heart to do what you gotta do, get it done.
Go after what you love, not away from what you hate, ask what will make the dream live.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[smarty]

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.

BURN THE BOATS!
BUT...
Don't stop there.

I burned the boats and then self doubt kicked in and I kinda stopped there. F*ck that. I'm never ever gonna give up, not in a single second. I have decided to burn the boats even if it takes me up to the last breath.

 

[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

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.