The Burning Ships

A commander landed his army on an enemy shore. Before the battle, he ordered his ships burned.

His soldiers were horrified. “How will we retreat?”

“We won’t,” the commander said.

The enemy, seeing the smoke, understood that this army would fight to the last man. Retreat was not an option they were choosing to refuse — it was an option they had physically destroyed.

The army fought with desperate ferocity. The enemy, facing opponents who could not flee, chose to negotiate rather than face annihilation.

The commander won by making himself weaker. By removing his own option to retreat, he changed the enemy’s calculation entirely.