Burn the Boats
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4.1 • 86 Ratings
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- $3.99
Publisher Description
*A WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER!*
Read the book that has inspired thousands of people around the world to pursue their Plan A—making bold career moves, launching dream businesses, fleeing toxic relationships, and silencing the naysayers.
Feel like you’re always settling for Plan B? Have big goals but something—or someone—is holding you back?
There is a counterintuitive but effective strategy used throughout recorded history to overcome impossible odds and achieve breakout success: Eliminate any thoughts of retreat.
In Burn the Boats, you’ll learn:
How to break patterns that undermine total commitment (such as imposter syndrome, anxiety, and toxic leadership habits)How science proves that a perfectly crafted plan B saps motivation and diminishes successful outcomes How to achieve financial independence by leveraging the stream of data you consume in your daily life, known as ‘proprietary insights’How to harness the personal power of your pain and shame to turn flaws into your superpowerHow dozens of the people you admire first burned their own boats before becoming household names
In this gripping rags-to-riches instant classic, Matt Higgins provides the blueprint he used to go from a desperate sixteen-year-old high school dropout caring for his sick mother in Queens, New York, to a shark on Shark Tank. Now a serial entrepreneur with a billion-dollar portfolio of some of America’s most beloved brands, Higgins unpacks the burn-the-boats strategy with raw emotion and radical transparency.
Now translated into numerous languages worldwide, Burn the Boats is the definitive tome on the oldest life hack in history. From Sun Tzu to Tariq ibn Ziyad, the ancient Israelites to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky—when leaders want to motivate their troops for success, they self-sabotage their own retreat so all energy is directed on a singular objective. They burn their metaphorical boats that sow doubt; it’s win or perish, and their unshakable resolve propels them to victory.
But the clarity of crisis decision-making can also be harnessed in our everyday lives. Higgins draws upon extensive research, historical precedent, and dozens of firsthand case studies—from actress-turned-entrepreneur Scarlett Johansson to NFL Coach Rex Ryan—that prove merely contemplating Plan B diminishes the probability of ever achieving Plan A.
Written in the reassuring tone of a mentor and drawing upon Higgins’s experience as a teacher at Harvard Business School, Burn the Boats will carry you through any rough seas on the most exciting journey of your life.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
Customer Reviews
A Quad Mom’s Perspective
Quality empowerment moments are presented throughout this scaling entrepreneurial read. Plus this book shares how the marketing process successes have shown in success stories to become. As well as shared the character archetypes it takes to grit through these 21st century times in the enterprise of the economy.
Solid Insights Drowned by Politics
"Burn the Boats" definitely takes a path less traveled by diving headfirst into politics, and honestly, it's a bit of a head-scratcher for me. Books in this genre usually stick to the life lessons and success strategies, steering clear of political waters. But this one? It leans so hard into left-leaning politics that it almost feels like you're getting an earful regardless of where you stand on the political spectrum. I'm all for everyone having their own views, but mixing it so heavily with the book's main theme kind of muddies the water for me.
It's a bit odd, really. The whole book is built around this idea of self-reliance, but then it throws in political takes that feel completely at odds with that. It's like trying to juggle being self-reliant while also playing the victim card, and I can't wrap my head around how those two go together. Plus, the political bits come off more like pandering for approval rather than something the author truly believes in, which just makes those parts harder to swallow.
Just when you're getting into the good stuff—hard work, strategy, that 'burn the boat' mentality—it's like you hit a wall of political talk that just saps the motivation right out of you. Honestly, the book could have been a solid hit, a 4 or even a 4.5, if it just stuck to its guns without veering off into politics.
Given the author's impressive background and some genuinely interesting insights, I'd feel a bit harsh rating it too low. But seriously, less of the political soapbox moments and more focus on the core messages of business smarts and self-reliance would've made this read so much more impactful. As it stands, I'm hovering around a 3, mainly out of respect for the author's experiences and the non-political gems sprinkled throughout the book.
Great book until
Great book until he mentions Gary Vaynerchuk who is a fake self proclaimed guru. Who profited off the general public by pumping and dumping NFT’s which made him a billionaire overnight. Dude should be in prison