Episode #204- Sometimes you have to Burn the Boats!

**🎙️ Podcast Show Notes:

Ever stood at one of life’s crossroads, knowing a better path exists but struggling to leave the comfortable one behind? That's exactly the dilemma this episode tackles through the powerful metaphor of "burning the boats." 🔥⛵
 
 The concept traces back to 1519 when Hernan Cortes ordered his men to destroy their ships upon landing in Mexico, eliminating any possibility of retreat. Similarly, in 1776 when George Washington secured every available boat along the Delaware before his famous crossing, preventing British pursuit while ensuring his troops had only one direction to move—forward. These weren't just bold tactical moves; they represent a timeless principle about the power of full commitment. 🎯
 
 For collision repair shop owners facing industry challenges, this principle becomes particularly relevant. Whether it's ending unsustainable DRP relationships, committing to OEM repair procedures and charging correctly for what you do, or investing in EV repair capabilities despite substantial costs, success often requires burning those metaphorical boats. The same applies beyond business—in careers, health journeys, financial decisions, and even personal relationships. Sometimes, progress demands eliminating our backup plans. ⚔️
 
 What makes this approach so powerful? When retreat becomes impossible, we access reserves of creativity, determination, and resourcefulness we didn't know we possessed. 🦏

If you want to take the island, you’re going to have to burn the boats! 🔥

Link to Shey Knight’s FenderBender article: https://tinyurl.com/y6tm9fhp

Ready to discover what might be possible when you fully commit? Visit https://rickselover.com/contact/for a free consultation to explore how coaching might help you identify which boats need burning in your professional or personal life.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Burn the Boats: Victory or Death
• 3:20 Washington's Strategic Delaware Crossing
• 6:32 Modern Application in Business
• 8:11 The Power of Professional Coaching
• 10:18 Tough Decisions in Collision Repair
• 12:55 Personal Relationships and Health Changes

Transcript

Rick: 0:00

going all in with nothing to fall back on no way out. Victory or death. Now fast forward to current times. We very seldom face the victory or death part, but the concept of completely committing to something without the security of a backdoor or contingency plan is what burning the boats is all about. The need for collision shop owners and operators to burn the boats is crucial for their long-term survival in this increasingly challenging industry. Listen, you don't have to be a business owner to experience burning the boats. This can happen in your job or your career, regardless of how you make your livelihood, and it could be as daunting of a decision as what I just described for shop owners Mind Wrench.

Rick: 1:15

Hey, what's up everybody? Welcome to the MindWrench Podcast. I'm your host, rick Salo. Thanks so much for stopping in. If you're a returning listener and haven't done so already, please take a minute and click the follow or subscribe button, and then rate and review the show. When you rate and review the show, the algorithms for Apple, spotify, google Podcasts, iheartradio, amazon Music and all the other platforms will see that it's valuable and show it to more people that have never seen it before, and hopefully it can help them too. I would really, really really appreciate your help, sharing this word with your friends and family as well, and if you're a brand new listener, welcome. I hope you find something of value here that helps you in your personal or professional life as well. Please make sure to click the subscribe or follow button so you never miss another episode.

Rick: 2:00

Recently, I read an article in Fender Bender Magazine by Shea Knight. It immediately shared with all my social media circles. It's a great article and spot on advice for many in our collision community, but I didn't even have to read the piece to know exactly what burn the boats meant. For the past five years, I've been involved in a mastermind group and virtually mentored by some of the best entrepreneurs and motivational, inspirational folks in the business, many that have set and achieved unbelievable goals, faced major turning points in their lives or started almost completely impossible business ventures experiences that most of us will never face. I can't count how many real-life stories shared by Tony Robbins or Ed Milet, or situations where Dean Graziosi explained how they had to burn the boats to move forward in their business or in their lives. Shea started this article with the fact that in 1519, spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes made a decision that changed history. After landing in Mexico with his crew, he gave an unthinkable order burn the boats. With no means of retreat, cortes left his men with one option move forward and conquer or perish.

Rick: 3:12

A little bit closer to home, back in 1776, our first US President, george Washington, did something equally as brazen that most don't know about. But he didn't actually burn his boats. He figuratively burned the British boats by stealing them before crossing the Delaware. So the story goes late 1776, the American cause was in a terrible state. After a string of defeats in New York, george Washington and his Continental Army were in full retreat, hounded across New Jersey by the British. His army was small, demoralized and on the verge of collapse. Many shoulders and listments were set to expire at the end of the year and desertion was rampant. Morale could not get any lower.

Rick: 3:54

Washington, knowing his army was too weak to face the British in a conventional fight, led his remaining troops across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania in December. To prevent the British from following him in capturing Philadelphia, washington ordered his men to confiscate every available boat along the Delaware. This was a critical strategic move. He collected and secured a fleet of various vessels, including large flat-bottomed freight boats known as Durham boats. This action not only denied the British the means to cross the river, but also provided Washington with the transportation he would need for a surprise attack. Now, with his army's future hanging in the balance, washington devised a daring plan a surprise attack on the Hessian garrison at Trenton, new Jersey, on Christmas night. Now, the Hessians, german mercenaries hired by the British. These were some mean, terrible bastards. They were known for their disciplines, but were not expecting an attack during the holiday season.

Rick: 4:50

On the night of December 25th, so Christmas night 1776, washington's troops began their famous crossing of the Delaware River. The crossing was a monumental challenge. A severe winter storm brought freezing rain, sleet and snow. The river was choked with ice and the currents were treacherous. Under the command of Colonel Henry Knox, the troops, horses and artillery were ferried across in the Durham boats. The crossing was slow and grueling, taking far longer than planned. Despite the harsh conditions and the delay, the element of surprise was maintained because the Hessians believed that the weather made an attack impossible and, after arduous nine-mile march, washington's forces launched their attack on the morning of December 26th. Very early in the morning. They caught the Hessians completely off guard, quickly overwhelming them. The American victory was decisive, with nearly a thousand Hessians captured and many killed or wounded, while the American losses were very minimal.

Rick: 5:47

The Battle of Trenton, followed by another victory at Princeton a week later, was a major turning point in the war. It restored American morale, encouraged new enlistments and proved that the Continental Army was capable of victory. It cemented Washington's reputation as a brilliant military leader and kept the cause of independence alive and well. Pretty badass, huh. That's a great example of what that phrase means Going all in with nothing to fall back on, no way out. Victory or death. Now fast forward to current times. We very seldom face the victory or death part, but the concept of completely committing to something without the security of a backdoor or contingency plan is what burning the boats is all about. The need for collision shop owners and operators to burn the boats is crucial for their long-term survival in this increasingly challenging industry. If you're looking for a competitive edge for your business or a more effective jumpstart to your personal development, I'll make your first step super simple.

Rick: 6:48

It is a fact that an incredible number of the most successful business owners, nearly half of the Fortune 500 companies, top-earning professional athletes, entertainers and industry leaders like Microsoft's Bill Gates, former President Bill Clinton, oprah Winfrey, richard Branson, amazon's Jeff Bezos and Salesforce's Mark Benioff all have one thing in common they all have at least one coach and some have several that they work with on a consistent basis, someone that helps guide, mentor and support them, challenge them, help them set and achieve goals that move them forward and then hold them accountable to follow through, driving personal and professional growth. Working with a coach has many substantial benefits. Just for an example, 80% of coaching clients report improved self-esteem or self-confidence thanks to coaching. 99% of individuals and companies that hire a coach report being very satisfied and 96% would do it again. If, deep down, you know it's time to make those improvements in your business, your personal life, that you've kicked down the road year after year. If you're tired of knowing there's a better version of you waiting to shine, but unsure of how to bring that version to light. If you're tired of wanting to enjoy a more successful business but not sure how to start.

Rick: 8:01

And if you don't want to go another 12 months without better results but you don't want to go it alone, then take the first step. It's super simple. Sometimes talking to the right person can make all the difference. Go to wwwrixelovercom contact and I'll set you up with a free consultation. Call with me to see if one-on-one coaching is right for you, whether it's leaving a decades old DRP relationship that doesn't serve your business anymore, deciding that OEM repair procedures and using only factory OEM parts are now mandatory at your shop, to not only protect the safety of your customers but protect your empire from lawsuits. To stop the painful practice of giving away labor. To keep the peace with the insurance carriers you deal with and start charging correctly for all the procedures and materials used on each repair, regardless of who has to pay the customer or the carrier. To protect the integrity of your valued assets, your technicians. Or maybe stop dabbling and just going all in on EV repairs, despite the cost of equipment and the training needed, even something that many owners feel like the most personal boat burner, leaving a jobber or changing out a paint company they've been dealing with for years that no longer brings any tangible value to the partnership, to a new vendor that truly works hard, is involved in solutions and brings needed change to the shop that could help them reach that next level success.

Rick: 9:27

Now, believe me, in my 32 years in the jobber business, I've been on both ends of this change and it can be one of the toughest, most emotional boats to burn for a majority of body shop owners. I've seen some that have lost sleep, experienced physical distress and lost employees over a decision like this. The decision to actually sell your shop or close the doors after decades of building a business, a personal legacy, creating long-term relationships with customers, employees and your community, can be absolutely gut-wrenching and seem like the end of the world. But burning that boat can be that one thing that propels you to the next phase of your life that you need to get to Listen, you don't have to be a business owner to experience burning the boats. This can happen in your job or your career, regardless of how you make your livelihood, and it could be as daunting of a decision as what I just described for shop owners. Jumping from a job or a career where you know what you're doing and how to make money into a different industry or even starting a new business of your own requires the same commitment to burn that old boat of comfort zone. I saw this many times within the mastermind group I'm part of seeing folks give up the security of income at their jobs, you know, with their knees knocking, their stomach churning, their head spinning Maybe this is the only way to provide for their families Giving all that up and starting a new gig from scratch with no guarantee of success. This is a true expression of burning the boats. But it's not just business or career related.

Rick: 10:55

There are many areas of our lives where we consciously commit to hard change with no plan B right In our physical health, when things just get too far out of hand. We can't seem to lose that stubborn excessive weight, no matter what diet we try or what exercise we do. We finally make that hard choice to throw out all the food in our house, get our stomachs stable, commit to a rigorous exercise plan with a paid trainer to hold us accountable or maybe we can't stop drinking. We actually commit ourselves to a 30 or 60 day rehab drying out program. Roast the robots right. Our financial health can be a total mess when we're trying to manage things we don't even really understand, like our investments. Where we dabble with stocks or bitcoin or mutual funds, only never really gaining any ground. All the while our overwhelming debt continues to climb, we finally decide to spend the money, hire a professional financial planner and tax expert to put all our money concerns into the right hands. It takes some faith, takes some guts, takes some humility.

Rick: 11:58

Lastly, but certainly equally as important, is the fact that we're a social species. Human relationships are an essential part of our lives, but not all relationships remain permanent, right. Sometimes the friendships or relationships we build have varying shelf lives, don't they? Some people we know for a short period of time, some for a season and some for a lifetime. But knowing when a relationship is no longer serving both sides or has become unhealthy or even toxic for us is when we need to once again burn the boats. Walking away from a long-standing friendship, ending an unfulfilling, dysfunctional marriage or separating yourself from part of your family that's extremely toxic can seem overwhelming just to think about, let alone following through on. But committing to cutting those ties and burning those boats, you probably already know this is your one-way ticket to peace of mind, relief, sanity, personal growth and the better quality of life you know you deserve.

Rick: 12:56

So, as we wrap up this conversation, whether we are burning the boats in our business, our jobs or our careers and our own physical, mental or emotional health, making those hard-line decisions in our financial situation or personal relationships. The cold hard facts are that it's not easy. It's not without severe repercussions. These are very difficult commitments to make and we'll test our willingness to follow through and not just give up, cut and run when it gets very uncomfortable. But the payoff is we advance, we make major improvements in our lives, we climb to that next level we are destined to reach and we just strike the match and burn the boats. Well, that's all I had for you today. Thanks again for tuning in. I really appreciate your support and I hope you have a great week. I can always be reached at wwwrickselovercom, where you can find all my social media links podcast episodes, blog posts and much more Outro.

Rick: 13:54

Music.