Intro

In 1519, Hernán Cortés landed in Mexico and promptly set fire to his own fleet. By any conventional measure of military logistics, this seems profoundly counterproductive. It wasn't.

Matt Higgins — Shark Tank investor, Harvard Business School lecturer, and accidental dropout — has spent his career studying what happens when humans remove their own escape routes. Spoiler: it tends to go rather well, and there's solid science to explain why.

A landmark Wharton study found that merely having a backup plan measurably reduces both your motivation and your likelihood of success. The safety net, it turns out, is cutting the tightrope.

• Why the brain mistakes "prudence" for "self-protection" and how to catch it

• The four-step process for synthesising your risk tolerance before you commit

• How to extract more value from failure than was taken from you

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Learn about the evolving story of the human species and our ideas told in chronological order. The podcast is full of fun facts, surprising stories and philosophical insights.

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CHAPTERS

00:00 Cortés Burning the Boats
01:31 Introducing Matt Higgins
04:08 The Problem with Plan B
06:11 Managing Risks
10:53 When You Should Be Able to Retreat
15:18 Why We Should Not Romanticise Failure
17:38 Life After Shark Tank
24:30 Optimising Strengths vs Improving Weaknesses
31:48 Importance of Commitment and Setting Intentions
33:47 Inspiring Women
37:00 The Investor Anxiety Exchange
39:45 Rapid Fire Questions

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