I was overseeing business operations for the New York Jets in 2011 when our head coach, Rex Ryan, told the team about how the military commanders of antiquity would summon maximum effort by literally burning their boats after landing ashore, eliminating any possibility for retreat. It struck me then -- this was the strategy for greatness, and had been for centuries. To prove it, I wrote a book, Burn the Boats, which draws on interviews with more than 50 highly successful entrepreneurs about their no-retreat moments -- to inform a set of strategies that we can all follow when looking to unleash our full potential.
From their stories, here are three lessons you can use to fuel your own burn the boats journeys: