Many articles had been written about Hernán Cortés and his quest for the Aztec gold. In 1519, determined to capture the Aztec’s gold, Hernán Cortés, the Spanish Conquistador, famously shouted: “Burn the boats!”
Or maybe more likely “burn the ships”, or something like that in Spanish. He allegedly only sailed away from Cuba (he was based in Cuba already) with the intent to capture the Aztec’s gold, with a scant clue of how much gold there was. He only knew it was “a lot”. He didn’t bring any extra ships to load the gold to bring back nor did he bring additional food for the trip back to Cuba. Worst, he burnt the ship he had!
He defied the order of the governor of Cuba, who aborted his expedition at the last minute – he set sail anyway. I am not saying that you should follow Cortés blindly but study the aspects of his life and actions which we can learn from, and possibly emulate.
No “Plan B”
He was pushing for his men to thoroughly vanquish the Aztec civilisation thus grabbing every ounce of gold to bring home to Cuba and Spain. He had no “plan b”, allegedly. His plan was that there was no escape for his men. They would have to completely defeat the Aztecs and go back to Cuba in the Aztec ship – so the legend went.
I’m not so sure if the Aztecs had any open sea-faring vessels like the Vikings. Otherwise, they might already have whacked the Spanish before the Spanish even set sail for the New World. Or Cuba which was nearer.
Never mind that.
No “Plan B” for me too.
Burn the boat. My boats. I was never keen or had any interest to go back to where I left off. And due to my single-mindedness, I hadn’t figured out any Plan B for my life. In the area of sales and business development, however, in approaching a client or clients, I always had plans A, B, C, D and E and often tweaked the plans on the fly.
Weird, right?
Goals in concrete?
The recent lockdown made me think, “why didn’t I allow myself to be opened to other possibilities, in my life or career?” I realised that I got the phrase “set your goal in concrete and your plans in the sand” muddled. I got this really mixed up.
I learned that sometimes, goals also could be tweaked – it depends on what kind of goal it is. For example, my goal is to obliterate all my bad debts by the end of the year 2021 and be financially free, at some point, yes, highly possible! But then, with the multiple lockdowns and uncertainty about the virus, I began to wonder if it could still be achieved.
That really required tweaking the plan and mechanism to Plan B. Plan B required me to put aside a lot of what I knew and already practising, then learn and acquire new skills, habits, etc.
Achieving that goal, I set for 2021, had a big question mark.
Tweaking it
I observed that companies which weathered the covid storm, bruised and battered, had at some point likely said, “Screw this! Let’s relook at everything. Every single thing!” From their goals, objectives, direction, what they knew, their current practices etc.
For example, restaurants and cafes that despised GrabFood or Foodpanda had to bite their tongue and realised that they needed these gig-economy people, to survive. Taxi drivers who seriously hated Grab started to look at Grab as their way to survive. Pilots started to sell nasi lemak. Executives started to bake cakes etc. We suddenly saw AirAsia which became “RoadAsia”, started doing food delivery and ridesharing.
Heard of VU—what?
The term VUCA – volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity – was first used in 1987. Economic recessions were almost predictable, in the “old days”. While some said that the economy went into a recession every 3-4 years, others said 8-10 years. Thus, VUCA! Whose words are we to believe? One way or another, we are screwed! Thus, we must really look at our goals and plans differently now.
The goal now was to survive and possibly thrive. The numbers changed. For me, this was the third time I personally had been deeply impacted. The first time was in 1999 when I, together with 1000 other engineers from an oilfield service company had to go. The second time was in 2014 when the global oil prices crashed to less than US$20/bbl, from a high of US$125!
My goals were severely impacted! My income from a high of US$4000/month crashed to zero! I had a project in hand that could potentially be invoiced at a total of US$120m, and it was shelved! I worked to get that project to happen for two years. Ever heard the word “stumped”? We had others who were involved, who counted on that project to continue, but it did not. Thanks to (now with hindsight we can say it) severe cost-cutting measures by the client.
Over-arching
If we look at most people, the main and overarching goals are quite simple:
- To have at least a good life – a great life would be better!
- To be financially free – to be wealthy is better!
It’s the breakdown and the mechanisms to achieve these goals that we’d have to look at. If we take this into selling, the basic goal is to achieve a certain level of sales, revenue, and profitability, for the company to stay afloat, and thrive. When we break it down, we start to look at the numbers, what those numbers mean and the plan and mechanism to obtain those numbers.
I mentioned the word “stumped” earlier.
Often, when we face a giant tree just six inches from our nose, we can’t see where we could go or where we need to go. This is where we need to take a few or even many steps back. We must re-assess if the earlier goal we set earlier still makes sense or is achievable. Can we still move in the direction we set earlier? Do we need to relook at the map and choose a new target? Maybe it would take a little longer to get to where we want to be.
Re-assessing
Thus, I believe that goals are dynamic, thus not set in concrete. Goals must be continuously assessed.
We are often told that to get to the moon, the astronaut had to adjust the trajectory often, by course-correcting the rocket to get to the moon. However, we are seldom told that sometimes the whole mission was aborted, and back to the drawing board. Or the mission ended up as a complete disaster that forced NASA to relook at the whole thing in detail.
In sales and life, it is similar. Sometimes you must do course correction; sometimes you must change the trajectory; sometimes you need to take detours, short or long; sometimes you have to abort the mission and examine the details again.
Sticking to a goal, set by someone else, blindly, often leads to unnecessary stress and frustration. There are twelve months and various seasons in a year. Conditions and situation change. Thus, goals must be re-assessed and adjusted to look at “what is achievable” and stretched for a little more.
Being aware of current and creating future scenarios allows you to tweak your goals. There are times when you even might severely exceed your predictions. You must be ready for that too!
Plans, still?
Don’t be afraid to seriously consider and burn the boats! Yet, at the same time, also consider Plan B, Plan C or even Plan Z. Do not let yourself be paralysed by analysing too much though. I guess Cortés might just be the first guy to famously say “JUST DO IT” albeit in Spanish and a slightly different way.
In good times, most salespeople have great ideas and ways to achieve the numbers. But come the pandemic or any other kind of recession, everyone started to pull their hair out!
What is my boat, what is yours?
I had seen a friend who meandered from a business which produced Quran-reading pens to gold coins and gold to now plantation. I had gone through training & coaching with subjects ranging from sales and business development to leadership and environment and now focusing on agriculture as well doing consulting on sales and business development. I write as well for a few portals and recently I am considering introducing technology (ICT) into agriculture. I must be fluid and respond fast to changes and opportunities in the market.
Have a core competency and be fluid around it. You need to be able to swim and build a boat or a raft with whatever flotilla comes your way.
Watch how AirAsia became RoadAsia and now restarting AirAsia and AirAsiaX flights again. Tony Fernandes and AirAsia had their fair share of critics yet watch how they swim (metaphorically). Watch them against the larger airlines. You can see this “swimming” in the industry of online/offline shopping too. Books especially.
Bottom line is – you need to be able to swim, without any gears. Then as you go, utilise whatever things that float your way. You need to recognise what jives with you, and what doesn’t. And what can we learn from Cortés? I was intrigued by Cortés from a speech I heard many years ago. I haven’t read his full biography but helped by Wikipedia.
Enough to shed some light on the explorer and the tagline “burn the boat!”
