What is your PONR?

What is your PONR?

PONR:  Point of No Return.  Whether you’re King Leonidas, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Napoleon or just you, there will come a point in your life where you will have to go all in.  It’s a line you cross that once you cross it, you can’t go back, you have to keep going forward.

From Wikipedia,

The point of no return (PNR or PONR) is the point beyond which one must continue on one’s current course of action because turning back is dangerous, physically impossible or difficult, or prohibitively expensive. The point of no return can be a calculated point during a continuous action (such as in aviation). A particular irreversible action (such as setting off an explosion or signing a contract) can be a point of no return.”

In Grant Cardone’s latest Strategy of the Week, Grant gives us a few examples from history that reflect going 100% all in.

1. Burn The Ships:  There are many examples from history where the burn the ships strategy has lead to victory in battle.  Case in point, Alexander The Great after crossing the Dardanelles, burned his ships and decreed “We either return home in Persian ships or we will die here.”  When the option to retreat has been removed, people tend to approach things differently.
2. The Die Is Cast:  Julius Caesar said this as he crossed his PONR, which was the Rubicon river in Italy.  Once crossed, it was victory or death.
3. Hold On To Your Butts:  Not from actual history, but a classic sink or swim line from Jurassic Park dropped by Samuel L Jackson.

What About You?

What is your PONR?  Do you have a Rubicon you need to cross, die to cast, butts to hold?  Where do you need to burn the ships and go all in?

From Grant’s Strategy of the Week:

Every problem has a solution, and often the solution is YOU simply making a commitment and going all-in.  Be bold!   Sometimes problems are only solved by bold actions.

[ACTION IDEA #1:  When was the last time you went all in and it paid off big time?  Go back as far as you need to but we’ve all done it.  We’ve all gone in at some point and it’s paid off big time.]

Myself, coming to work for Grant, I said no to a pretty lucrative offer on the table at the time, took a 70% pay cut and then went all in on helping Grant get his message out and helping companies use Cardone University to grow their business by growing and developing their sales teams.  And that has paid off big time.

Back to the strategy:

Almost every problem people face in their careers and other aspects of their lives — such as failed diets, marriages, and financial problems — are all the result of NOT taking enough bold action.“Most of society discourages the all-in mentality because we are taught to play it safe, protecting ourselves from losses rather than going for the big payoff…  but some challenges in life can’t be played safe.”

[ACTION IDEA #2:  When and how have you been encouraged to play it safe?  Has anyone ever tried to impose limits on you and your potential?  What are you doing about it?]

The flip side to going all in

What happens when you go all in on red and it comes up black?  Napoleon went all in on his invasion of Russia in 1812 and that didn’t go so well.  He went all in and lost.  What about Grant?  Has he ever gone all in and lost?  In the Strategy, he cites three personal examples.

1. Pre-Elena:  Grant got married at 35 and divorced at 36.
2. GC was all-in with drugs from the ages of 16-25.
3. He went all-in with a business partner who scammed him.

[ACTION IDEA #3:  Have you ever gone all in and lost?  What happened?  What good still came from it and what did you learn?]

How the strategy wraps up:

But when you go all-in, the wins are so big, it’s far riskier to never take a swing—even if you miss.  So, keep in mind that YOUR EMPIRE will only be as big as you are willing to risk!  To victors belong the spoils.”

Final Thoughts About What is your PONR:

Have you seen the movie JoJo Rabbit yet?  This film will challenge your thinking, your perception and allow you to appreciate the value of taking risks in the face of all opposition.  There is a portion of a poem quoted in the movie that is very fitting for this discussion and validates what Grant means when he says it’s far riskier to never take a swing.

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.

Just keep going.

No feeling is final.“