https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XhabeLLuEw

All right, today we are diving into one of the most controversial questions in entrepreneurship. Should you quit your job to start a business? And I'm going to tell you something that might surprise you. Sometimes the answer is heck no. And sometimes, well, sometimes those boats get burned for you whether you like it or not. And here's what I mean. I've had my boats burned for me. Sometimes by choice and sometimes by force. I've watched friends make the leap and crush it. And I've watched other friends destroy their families, chasing a dream that should have just stayed a side hustle. So by the end of this episode, you're going to know exactly when to take the leap and when to keep your day job. First, I'm going to tell you about the great boat burning debate that's been messing with my head for the last 15 years. All right, let's start with the elephant in the room. There are two competing viewpoints. In my head, I'm a walking contradiction. On one hand, when there's no plan B, plan A has to work. So burn the boats. Go all in. Force yourself into a corner where success is the only option. The second idea is it is foolish to put all your eggs into one basket. Smart people always have backup plans. Only idiots risk everything on an unproven idea. So which one of these viewpoints is right? Well, here's the thing that actually drives me crazy. I kind of believe both of these things are true at the same time. And before you think I'm some wishy washy fence sitter, let me explain my logic for you. If you've never heard of Dude Perfect, they're these guys who became YouTube millionaires by making trick shots. I'm sure you've heard of them. Basketball from a helicopter, golf balls into moving cars, that kind of stuff. They have this incredible documentary on YouTube. I highly suggest you watch it with your family. And there's this moment in the documentary that perfectly encapsulates burning the boats. Done right? So Dude Perfect started as five buddies down at Texas A and M. They started making trick shot videos, they started going viral, they started getting sponsors, but it still wasn't like a business that could support all five of their families. So three of them went on to get full time jobs after college, and two of them, the twin brothers, were working on Dude Perfect full time. And it wasn't working. They were working remotely, pulling all nighters, working on the weekends only. And the two brothers were kind of feeling burned out and they were feeling slighted because they were doing most of the Work. And they were about to break up. They almost quit Dude Perfect entirely. Their families thought they were crazy, et cetera, et cetera. Until one day they sat down, they had a pivotal conversation and they said, we can't just be lukewarm. We gotta be all in or all out. Do we want to quit this? No. There's something here. Can this support our families right now? Absolutely not. But we need to have faith and belief that it will, that it can, especially if we put all of our focus into it. So the three guys that had full time jobs quit their jobs and all five went all in on Dude Perfect. And they say specifically that that was the biggest inflection point they'd ever experienced. After that point, everything just came together. Bigger and bigger sponsors, better videos, more virality, more money. It was a runaway success. And it's not a coincidence that it happened right when they went all in. They had no backup plan. It had to work. They cared about it more than they ever cared about it because of that inflection point. That's what burning the boats looks like. When it works, plan A becomes the only plan. So plan A has to succeed. I took an entrepreneurship class in college and our professor taught us about what's called the Wing Walker's code. Now, if you can picture a wing walker, he's walking across the wings of an airplane and he never lets go of one railing until he has hold of the other. Which also means don't burn the boats. Don't let go of the main thing until you have another thing. And I also believe in that too. It just depends. It depends on who you are. Depends on the situation. How much experience do you have in the field? Are you able to go back to your job if your business doesn't work out? Some people are, some people aren't. How competitive is the market that you're in? Both of these viewpoints feel right to me. Both feel smart. It just depends on you. It depends on understanding the difference between burning the boats by choice and having them burned for you. And I've experienced both. So picture this. I'm 25 years old. I just sold my first real business called Phone Restore. I'm feeling pretty good about myself and I've told the story before, so I'm going to make it really quick. Long story short, the deal with the buyer did not go as well as it was supposed to have gone. And it got a little ugly, got a little contentious. My income went to zero overnight, literally unexpectedly, by no fault of my own. Luckily, I was working on Something else. Of course I was. I'm always working on something else. But I had to make that work. And I had such a chip on my shoulder from this deal that was quickly going south that that further added fuel to the fire. And that next business was how I made my first million dollars. It's how I built this house that I'm living in today. And had that deal not gone south, who knows where I'd be today. I don't think I would have had as much drive. And since that moment, I've had a couple other burn your boats moments, and they've worked out just as well, if not better. And conversely, whenever I have a really profitable business and I'm still tinkering with other ideas, those other ideas just don't go as well. Because as soon as I hit some roadblocks or friction or I get annoyed with customer acquisition, then I just move on to something else because I'm able to. I have that luxury. I had this company called Presto Cars once, and it was a concierge car buying service and it was working great, but I hated it, so I quit it. It could have been a big, big business, but my main business was crushing it and making a lot of money. So I just didn't have the drive. So a lot of this also depends on you. What type of person are you? But me, when there's no other choice, I have to make it work. Here's another personal story for you. So as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, I've never tasted alcohol or drugs or any of that. So when I go to networking events and someone offers me a beer or something, the temptation to drink that beer is exactly.0, 0.0%. Because as a kid, I made up my mind I am never going to touch that. And I never have and I never will. And it's easy to say no, because it's not even an option. Like, I would not go to Walmart right now and key all the cars in the parking lot. That's not a temptation. It's not even an option. It will never happen for me. Now fast forward to when I'm 31 years old. I look in the mirror and see how fat I'd gotten. In my twenties, I was £260 and I knew I had to make a change. I had to lay off the carbs. But most people fail at diets, and I was no exception. I tried diets in my 20s. I heard about keto. I tried it. And there was one secret hack that worked for me and I just treated carbs like alcohol. That's it. Just as if there were alcohol sitting on the table. There was no chance I was going to drink it if there were carbs on the table while I was on keto. It just wasn't an option. I just convinced my brain that it was alcohol or that it was keying all the cars in the Walmart parking lot. It wasn't an option. Once I flipped this switch in my brain, eating carbs wasn't even a temptation anymore and I lost 60 pounds and I kept it off. That's a burn the boats moment right there. It's not like anyone took carbs from me and it wasn't an option. I made that choice strategically. Now don't misunderstand. I'm not saying that if you suffer from any addiction, you can just will yourself to stop. I know it's a lot more complex and more difficult than that, but for me, in this specific circumstance, it worked great. Quick question. What if there were a private community out there of people that were building businesses based on this podcast? Well, I just made it and it's only for business starters. And business builders. It's called TK Owners and it's basically like having me and a hundred other business geniuses as your business partner, but you give them 0% equity. Also, there's going to be exclusive new trends, growth hacks, business ideas, and a database of everything I've ever talked about. You'll find thousands of startup case studies. You'll have weekly ask me anythings with me while I'll answer your questions directly. You'll be in my Slack channel where I'm hanging out every week and helping members one on one. We've got exclusive guest speakers, including some names that you'll recognize, and if you're building something cool, I'll introduce you to anyone you need. TK Owners is the fastest way to plug into a smart, ambitious group of builders and accountability partners that are sharing wins without the fluff. And it's 99 bucks a month about the cost of an energy drink per day. You can join now@tkowners.com link in the show Notes so your burn the boats moment doesn't have to be quitting your job. It can be smaller, more targeted decisions where you simply eliminate the option to go back. But here's the thing that's going to make you a little mad. When people come to me with their business ideas and ask if they should quit their six figure jobs, I almost always tell them no. And they're coming to me, hoping that I say yes. They want me to be the guy that says, go for it. Chase your dreams, burn the boat. But the thought of me encouraging someone to do that scares me to death. I've never had to quit a big awesome job, so I really have a hard time advising someone else to do that. Especially when they have a family. Especially if they might turn out to be a crap business owner. I don't know. So there's a key distinction here that everyone is missing. Burning the boats is not taking a poorly calculated risk. If burning the boats is done right, it should feel like an obvious decision. And you're going to hear that in the conversation we'll get to in a minute. It should feel like the only decision. I'm used to someone else lighting the match when my boats were broken, burnt. That's not normal. Sometimes that fire arrow comes out from behind the ridge and lands right on my stern. And there's nothing I can do about it except figure out how to swim. So here's the million dollar question. How do you get all the benefits of burning the boats without the stupidity of taking massive, poorly calculated risks? So let me paint you a picture. Meet John. John makes 180 grand a year working at a corporate job. John wants to open a mini donut stand. Not just one stand. He's all in. He wants to create a franchisable model that he can scale nationwide. So John comes to me and says, chris, should I quit my job and chase this dream? And here's my answer that makes everyone mad. No, John, you shouldn't. But here's what you should do. We can be creative because constraints equal creativity. So do this, John. Burn the boats by committing to a plan. A smart plan. And here's exactly how it'll work. Day one, John sets revenue goals within a reasonable time frame. If these goals are hit, he quits his job. If they're not, he states the boats are burned on the commitment of the plan, not on the paycheck. Months one through three, John spends nights and weekends learning everything about the mini donut business. He's not playing around. He's treating this like his life depends on it. Because eventually he will. He wants it to. Months four and five, John finds and buys a mini donut cart on ebay. He's not going to finance 200 grand for a storefront. He's starting smart and small. Month six, John learns how to operate everything in his spare time. He's making donuts in his garage. He's perfecting Recipes. He still hasn't quit his job. He's figuring out how to work the equipment, how to repair it. Month seven, John spends every single weekend at fairs, festivals and farmers markets, slanging donuts and learning the ropes. This is where the magic happens. This is where John finds out if he's cut out for this or not. Month nine, if the numbers are working, John buys a second cart and hires his first employee. Remember, he still hasn't quit his job. And if for whatever reason, this business doesn't work out, he has learned a valuable lesson for only a few thousand dollars and and not having to quit his job instead of hundreds of thousands of dollars and quitting his job. Do you see what's happening here? John is burning boats on the commitment level while keeping his financial safety nets in place. He's eliminated the option to be casual about this business. He's eliminated the option to quit when it gets hard. But he hasn't eliminated his dream or his ability to feed his family. This is how you burn boats, intelligently and strategically. You, you remove the ability to be half hearted without removing your ability to survive. And here's the thing. Most people aren't going to do this. You know why? Because it's actually harder than just quitting your job. When you quit your job, you get this rush, this dopamine hit. You get to tell everyone you're an entrepreneur now. You get to feel like you're living the dream. But when you do it the smart way, you're working 60 hours a week. It's not sexy. 40. Your day job. 20 plus on your side business. You're grinding in the evenings and on the weekends while your friends are watching Netflix and there's no glory in it. And yes, you care about what people say because everyone does. You don't have a dramatic story to tell at parties. It's just smart, methodical progress towards a goal. But here's what happens when you do it this way. By the time you actually quit your job, it doesn't feel like burning boats at all. It feels like the obvious next step because you've already proven out the concept. You've already built the foundation. The boats don't get burned. They get upgraded to a yacht. I try to read and respond to every single response to my newsletter. And here's what I've learned about most of you listening right now. You either own a business or real estate or you want to. Both categories will always need a burn the boats moment eventually. Maybe it's to open location number two. Maybe it's to quit your job and go full time. Maybe it's to make that acquisition you've been thinking of for months. And here's something I've noticed in thousands of conversations with these entrepreneurs. I can't remember ever talking to someone about a major trial they faced without them telling me something like, but man, did things get so much better afterwards. There's a pattern there. The struggle isn't the end of the story. It's the setup for the comeback. Many of you listening or watching right now are probably going through some serious suck. I don't know what that is. Maybe your business is struggling. Maybe your marriage is struggling. Maybe you're stuck in a dead end job that you hate. Maybe you're drowning in debt or dealing with family issues or health problems. But I don't know your situation. But I do know this. Your greatest days are ahead of you. And we will always learn the reason for our trials. Maybe in this life, maybe in the next. But what I've learned about burning boats, whether by choice or by force, is if you burn the boats and run out of coconuts, you're about to find a herd of cattle in a spring. Not what you expected, but maybe even better. If you burn the boats and you get desperately homesick, you're about to be rescued. If you burn the boats and you feel hopelessly foolish, you're about to be vindicated. Now, I'm not going to give you a cliche like what doesn't kill us makes us stronger. But I will say, and this is a CK original, what doesn't kill us reveals the strength that we've already had all along. So you can do this. Whether you burn the boats, keep a plan B, do both. The choice is yours. But now at least you know the difference. All right. I hope I inspired or encouraged you today to do what you think you should do. We'll see you next time on the Kerner office.