Kicking off TEDxDetroit 2022 this morning, Renée Walker reminded us that conventional wisdom says we shouldn’t burn bridges.
Because we never know if we’ll cross them again.
However, Walker explained there are situations that require us to resist conventions in order to achieve success.
The author, podcaster, and brand strategist shared her recommendations and her own story about burning bridges in her short TEDxDetroit talk.
Here are my takeaways.
Burning Bridges
- Why do successful people burn bridges? It’s healthy. It allows us to move forward and follow our passion.
- There are many ways to burn bridges. What’s important is to do it in the right way.
- Whether it’s your personal life or business relationships, you want to take responsibility over your life
- Burning bridges isn’t about being unprincipled or being ruthless. It’s about developing the skills and mindset to follow your passion.
- By acting decisively you’ll have the courage to cross some bridges, build new bridges, and burn other bridges in order to seize opportunities. Own your decisions.
- Be thoughtful about burning bridges. It’s easy to fall back on conventional wisdom to not burn bridges – it’s a safe choice.
- In our personal and professional lives, fear of failure, loss, and change can often stop us from burning bridges
- Bridges are important, but we need to take control and manage which ones we cross
- Walker shared her own story about burning a bridge at her first job as she worked her way through college. She wrote a memo with recommendations to her manager, who hijacked her recommendation as their own and shared it with a corporate director. Walker’s follow up actions, skipping followup with her own manager and reaching out to the corporate director instead, helped her gain support and respect from the corporate director.
- You have a choice to make how you lead and structure your life
- Being afraid to burn a bridge is never the answer
- Achieving success isn’t a spectator sport; it requires your participation and courage. And burning a few bridges.
