DW+IBSP Recorded Conversation: Lammons/Colip


How did the alliance between DW and IBSP come about? Here's Jim Colip to share the story:




*********

 Not getting where you want to be with your business? Maybe it's time to burn a few boats -- a lesson from history:

It was the year 1519 and Hernán Cortés, with some 600 Spaniards, 16 or so horses and 11 boats, had landed on a vast inland plateau called, Mexico. The Span­ish con­quis­ta­dor and his men were about to embark on a con­quest of an empire that hoarded some of the world’s great­est trea­sure. Gold, sil­ver and pre­cious Aztec jew­els were just some of that  trea­sure.

But, with only 600 men — none of whom had pro­tec­tive armour – con­quer­ing an empire so exten­sive in its ter­ri­to­ries could only be under­taken by a man with a death wish. This dar­ing under­tak­ing was made even more insur­mount­able by the fact that for more than 600 years, con­querors with far more resources at their dis­posal who attempted to col­o­nize the Yucatan Penin­sula, never suc­ceeded. Hernán Cortés was well-aware of this fact. And it was for this rea­son, that he took a dif­fer­ent approach when he landed on the land of the Mayans.

Instead of charg­ing through cities and forc­ing his men into imme­di­ate bat­tle, Hernán Cortés stayed on the beach and awoke the souls of his men with embla­zoned speeches. His speeches were inge­niously designed to urge on the spirit of adven­ture and invoke the thirst of life­times of for­tune amongst his troops. His ora­tions bore fruit, for what was sup­pos­edly a mil­i­tary exploit, now bore the appear­ance of extrav­a­gant romance in the imag­i­na­tions of Cortés’ troops.

But, iron­i­cally, it would only just be 3 words which Cortés’ mur­mured that would change the his­tory of the New World.  As they marched inland to face their ene­mies, Cortés ordered, “Burn the boats.”

It was a deci­sion that should have back­fired. For if Cortés and his men were on the brink of defeat, there wasn’t an exit strat­egy in place to save their lives. Remark­ably though, the com­mand to burn the boats had an oppo­site effect on his men because now, they were left with only 2 choices — die, or ensure vic­tory. And fight they did.

We know  how Cortés’ deci­sion to burn his boats panned out. Hernán Cortés became the first man in 600 years to suc­cess­fully con­quer Mexico.

**************

What boats are holding you back from filling your saddlebags with residual processing revenue?  Might be time to fire up a couple!