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Making a 'burn the ships' kind of decision

As a small boy I was very keen to know where things came from, its background and origins. History was my favorite subject in secondary school. The curriculum included learning about the Australian Gold Rush, the First World War, the Great Boers Trek in South Africa, the American Civil War and the story of Gandhi and Indian Independence. I was also fascinated by the various civilizations in human history, like the Egyptian Civilization, the Roman Empire and the various Chinese Dynasties. Even more fascinating for me, perhaps because of my Portuguese ancestry, were the colonization by seafaring powers in search for gold, artifacts, spices, land and strategic outposts and ports.

My memories of a specific history lesson came flooding back when I heard a song on the radio by Australian band For KING & COUNTRY. The song was called ‘Burn the Ships’ from the album by the same name.

The more I heard the song; I began to remember the history about the Spanish conquest of South America during the time of the Aztec Civilization in the 1500’s.

From that episode of history, the story is told of Hernán Cortés the Spanish Commander who, in 1519 got his men to burn the ships after they got to shore, where we now know as Veracruz, in the Gulf of Mexico. The decision to burn the ships was so that his men had no other choice but to either explore the unknown jungles in front of them and pursue the conquest of the ‘new world’ or die. For Cortés and his men, the familiarity of their ships, even though they were small, grimy and smelly provided an option to retreat. By burning the ships, the decision was made to go forward, as there was no turning back from then on.

While the historical link to the song could be considered a little gruesome, the background to the lyrics of the song by For KING & COUNTRY was quite uplifting.

The story goes that when the songwriter Luke was doing a show, he received a call from his wife Courtney to return home. This call came after months on the anti-nausea medicine which was prescribed for debilitating morning sickness during her second pregnancy. Courtney became addicted to it and rang to say that she couldn’t stop taking the pills.

The story continued with Courtney attending a treatment program which involved daily drop-offs and pick-ups by her husband, Luke. One day both were at home and Courtney had a bottle of pills in her hand. She said, “Luke I need to flush these pills because these pills represent so much guilt and shame in my life. I don't want to be consumed by my past anymore. I want to move into a new day and to what's before me.” The inspiration of the song came from that moment, coupled with the lesson from Cortés of removing all options of retreat. The flushing of the pills was the burning of the ships for Courtney and stepping into a new world, a new day.

Portion of the lyrics from ‘Burn the Ships’ by For KING & COUNTRY.

How did we get here?

All castaway on a lonely shore

I can see in your eyes, dear

It's hard to take for a moment more

We've got to

Burn the ships, cut the ties

Send a flare into the night

Say a prayer, turn the tide

Dry your tears and wave goodbye

Step into a new day

We can rise up from the dust and walk away

We can dance upon our heartache, yeah

So light a match, leave the past, burn the ships

And don't you look back

As a student of one of the world’s top leadership thinkers, Dr John C Maxwell, I saw that the metaphor of burning the ships could also apply to many of the challenges we face when having to make major decisions. As leaders we sometimes are faced with decisions which to the ordinary, does not make sense. Upper most on any leader’s mind is the mission and the end-goal.

In Cortés’ case he had a mission to accomplish. It would have ‘made sense’ for him to keep a ship or two or indeed the whole fleet. But with that mission horizon, he knew that the only way to keep himself or his men from quitting was to take the familiarity option, the fallback option, the retreat option off the table. While it may ‘not have made sense’ to his men at the time, the action was taken and the mission accomplished.

I am sure that each of us do, from time to time face these, ‘doesn’t make sense’ type of situations. To achieve the level of success we each desire, there will be times when we need to seize the moment and make a ‘burn the ships’ decision. Often to the casual observer it ‘does not make sense’. Just think of a missionary who gives up everything to surrender to the call of God, or a billionaire who invests all his energy and finance in the pursuit of space exploration or a doctor who tested infectious bacteria on himself and who 20 years later be awarded a Nobel prize in medicine. In a business scenario, there may be actions that we just need to give up on in order to move forward.

Personally speaking, I too have had a few ‘burn the ships’ moments. Whether it be on the personal front or at the career front, decisions to ‘cut the ties’, ‘cut the loses’, ‘burn the ships’ to move on are often inevitable if we are to grow and achieve our desired outcomes.

Perhaps the starting point are the questions we each have to ask ourselves: What are my ships? What am I afraid to let go of? What ships do I need to burn in my life? What is it that makes it hard to burn? Is it fear of the unknown? Is it fear of being perceived as a failure?

In the case of Courtney, it was her addiction. In the case of Cortés, it was his mission of exploration. As for me, my ship was the comfort of living in Perth but at age 23 year I packed my bags and headed for Melbourne, which was then my ‘unknown’ So, what is your ship?

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