Do You Use the Bridges That You Burn To Light Your Way?
…and why you should
There is a story of a Spanish explorer Hernan Cortez who once he reached Mexico had his troops burn the boats. That seems crazy to burn the boats that got you to that place BUT the explorer did not want an out. He knew that the opposing Aztec force was large and with a way out his soldiers would go backwards and flee on the boats.
Interesting story…
The reality of modern life is that we often want to build bridges. Bridges between people, teams we work on, and different departments. We keep old employer bridges in tact just in case.
Well I have followed that logic most of my life and let me tell you. Some of the bridges that I left in tact I should have bombed on the way out. Other ones were blown to pieces behind my exit.
Let me tell you a story about one of them.
In fall of 2003 I started working for ITT Tech. I walked in in September and after a month of being there I got an offer. The offer was to run a company and do some change management. The opportunity was such that I could not pass up.
I felt bad that I was going to leave mid semester BUT I had to do it. After speaking with my leadership, I was told not to worry about it and that I had not been there long enough to burn any bridges.
Interesting expression.
Even though I left, I had made friends with some of the faculty and over the next year kept tabs on the place. I was told that the cohort I had left was mostly gone because it was of such poor quality that most flunked out.
The external opportunity did not work out. After some consulting and teaching at several other places, I actually concluded that I liked the few faculty that I had befriended and after a year I was back at ITT tech.
What a $%^&* mistake!!!
Because I was there only a short time I failed to evaluate the leadership. They were horrible. My former boss was gone and in his place were couple of cronies of the dean. Two people who did nothing but talked a great game.
They made my life miserable. I was given courses that nobody wanted and schedules that made me drive the 130 mile round trip extra days just to sit in a library and wait for students to come by and ask questions. I liked that part but it could have been done during days I was working 16 hour days. No my bosses did not want to give me office hours on days I was there from 8 am to 11 pm.
Unfortunately the market was horrible and could not land another opportunity for a couple of years. I was stuck. Except for the students that I loved and few faculty that were exceptional and helpful, my two years felt like a trap I could not escape. Threats from dean and department manager to cut my hours and make me part-time, reduce my pay, and give me schedules that would make me drive 6 days instead of four were made to me.
After I left, I doubled my salary and went back to industry.
I tell the story to remind myself that sometimes it is helpful to burn bridges. The light should be used to show another way instead of returning to an existing way.
Burn baby burn….light the way
My four cents….(this is what I earned from Medium.com for March 2021)
I got to go…my future self alarm went off
PRODUCT LIST 2021
My first product of the year is the t-shirt with a circle. It can be purchased at
https://teespring.com/be-adaptive?pid=212&cid=5819
My second product is MyLin app. It can be viewed following the link below:
My Third product is a clean design T-shirt available on Amazon:
