Matt Higgins

I see something, I believe in something, and then I figure out how to overcome my anxiety and just go all in.

I see something, I believe in something, and then I figure out how to overcome my anxiety and just go all in.

I see something, I believe in something, and then I figure out how to overcome my anxiety and just go all in.

We do. There's a great YouTube video, if you want to Google it, anyone out there listening, where there's a Navy SEAL, I don't remember his name, and I should find it out. But he asked the entire audience, everyone, stretch your arms up as high as you can. And everyone in the room stretches your arms up, right? And you watch in the video, everybody stretches. Now stretch an inch higher.

We do. There's a great YouTube video, if you want to Google it, anyone out there listening, where there's a Navy SEAL, I don't remember his name, and I should find it out. But he asked the entire audience, everyone, stretch your arms up as high as you can. And everyone in the room stretches your arms up, right? And you watch in the video, everybody stretches. Now stretch an inch higher.

We do. There's a great YouTube video, if you want to Google it, anyone out there listening, where there's a Navy SEAL, I don't remember his name, and I should find it out. But he asked the entire audience, everyone, stretch your arms up as high as you can. And everyone in the room stretches your arms up, right? And you watch in the video, everybody stretches. Now stretch an inch higher.

And everyone stretches one inch higher. He said, I thought you were stretching as high as you can. And the point of that is we all have another level of effort, energy and determination that we can only harness if we cut off our backup plan. And this idea of burn the boats, a lot of people probably know it from Cortez, this idea that he burned the boats and he conquered the Aztecs.

And everyone stretches one inch higher. He said, I thought you were stretching as high as you can. And the point of that is we all have another level of effort, energy and determination that we can only harness if we cut off our backup plan. And this idea of burn the boats, a lot of people probably know it from Cortez, this idea that he burned the boats and he conquered the Aztecs.

And everyone stretches one inch higher. He said, I thought you were stretching as high as you can. And the point of that is we all have another level of effort, energy and determination that we can only harness if we cut off our backup plan. And this idea of burn the boats, a lot of people probably know it from Cortez, this idea that he burned the boats and he conquered the Aztecs.

I'm appropriating this war metaphor in a slightly different way. The boats that I'm talking about are the things that we all carry inside of our heads or in our past that make us hesitate when we have a vision for our own future that maybe isn't being validated by people around us.

I'm appropriating this war metaphor in a slightly different way. The boats that I'm talking about are the things that we all carry inside of our heads or in our past that make us hesitate when we have a vision for our own future that maybe isn't being validated by people around us.

I'm appropriating this war metaphor in a slightly different way. The boats that I'm talking about are the things that we all carry inside of our heads or in our past that make us hesitate when we have a vision for our own future that maybe isn't being validated by people around us.

In my case, it was that I didn't know which spoon to use at the dinner table because I grew up so dirt poor I was embarrassed by my background. And that shame would make me hesitate. And so I wanted to write a book to really prove – like exactly what you said, the mere presence of a backup plan is exactly the thing forcing you to need one.

In my case, it was that I didn't know which spoon to use at the dinner table because I grew up so dirt poor I was embarrassed by my background. And that shame would make me hesitate. And so I wanted to write a book to really prove – like exactly what you said, the mere presence of a backup plan is exactly the thing forcing you to need one.

In my case, it was that I didn't know which spoon to use at the dinner table because I grew up so dirt poor I was embarrassed by my background. And that shame would make me hesitate. And so I wanted to write a book to really prove – like exactly what you said, the mere presence of a backup plan is exactly the thing forcing you to need one.

And that there's tons of science and psychology around what happens when you fully commit to your plan. I always say just, you know, burning the boats doesn't guarantee you'll achieve your dreams, but not burning the boats guarantees you never will. And the thing I hacked into, and it's against my nature. I, I'm the most paranoid risk taker you'll ever meet.

And that there's tons of science and psychology around what happens when you fully commit to your plan. I always say just, you know, burning the boats doesn't guarantee you'll achieve your dreams, but not burning the boats guarantees you never will. And the thing I hacked into, and it's against my nature. I, I'm the most paranoid risk taker you'll ever meet.

And that there's tons of science and psychology around what happens when you fully commit to your plan. I always say just, you know, burning the boats doesn't guarantee you'll achieve your dreams, but not burning the boats guarantees you never will. And the thing I hacked into, and it's against my nature. I, I'm the most paranoid risk taker you'll ever meet.

And so this doesn't come effortlessly to me. But I do think the thing I hacked into is I put myself in situations where I don't have the answers and I reverse engineer the outcome by figuring it out. It's how I got onto Shark Tank, you know, when I had no business being there as a shark. It's how I ended up at Harvard Business School on the faculty as a person with a GED to a JD.

And so this doesn't come effortlessly to me. But I do think the thing I hacked into is I put myself in situations where I don't have the answers and I reverse engineer the outcome by figuring it out. It's how I got onto Shark Tank, you know, when I had no business being there as a shark. It's how I ended up at Harvard Business School on the faculty as a person with a GED to a JD.