This didn’t scare Xiang Yu. His belief in success was strong. He
ordered his soldiers to cross the Yellow river and head towards
the much larger Qin army. After they crossed the river, he ordered
his men to destroy the boats. Just like Cortez, Xiang Yu wanted
his men to focus on success and not accept failure.
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his men to destroy the boats because he wanted them to
focus on success and not accept failure.
Without boats, his soldiers could not run. His men would fight and
win or die.
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There were no other options.
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There were no other options.
It was not an easy war and there were many battles. At one point,
Xiang Yu again began to worry about his men running away. He
ordered his soldiers to destroy their cooking tools and only carry
enough food for 3 days. Again, he gave his soldiers no other
choice but success.
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didn’t want them to have many choices. He wanted them to
have no other choice but success.
With only 3 days of food, the only way to survive was to fight the
enemy and take his food. It was success or death. Xiang Yu and
his soldiers defeated the much larger Qin army. In the end,
200,000 Qin soldiers surrendered to Xiang Yu, but he was not a
forgiving man. He soon killed them all by burying them alive.
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burying them alive.
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Xiang Yu and Cortez were not heroes, and they certainly
were not men of peace, but they were men of conviction.
They both faced incredible challenges without fear or
doubt.
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were men of conviction.
Most men would give up and think that it was impossible
to succeed, but Cortez and Xiang Yu did the opposite.
They believed in success and made it impossible to give
up. These men were responsible for the tragic deaths of
thousands, but they have a lot to teach about the power
of belief and not accepting failure.
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failure.
How can this attitude be applied to challenges in your
life? The English word ‘decision’ comes from the Latin
word decisio, which means ‘to cut off’.
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in Latin.
Xiang Yu cut off all other options when he decided to fight. When
he sunk his ships and broke his woks, he was cutting off all
options except success.
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success.
Think about the challenges and goals in your life. What ships can
you sink? What woks can you break? How can you make
success your only option?