How to Think like Elon Musk - Jobidea24

From taking risks to working hard, learn all about Elon Musk's business.

 

Last week, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk made headlines when he overtook Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos to become the world's richest person.

Since March 2020, Tesla's price has risen nearly 720%. A significant compensation package also helped the businessman reach a net worth of $189.7 billion on Friday, moving him to the top spot, according to Forbes estimates.

According to Bloomberg's Billionaire Index, Musk is worth $209 billion, while Bezos, who has held the title since 2017, is worth $186 billion.

What makes Musk's success so impressive is how quickly he achieved it. As of early 2020, Musk, who owns up to 20 percent of Tesla, is the 35th richest person in the world. 

In early November, he became the world's third-richest person, overtaking Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates in second place.

This year, Tesla became the world's most valuable carmaker by market value, worth more than Toyota, Volkswagen, Hyundai, GM, and Ford combined. Tesla's current market cap is $846.69 Billion.

Although Musk has been at the center of many controversies and debates on Twitter, the billionaire is one of the most important inventors of our time. As the founder of four billion-dollar companies — PayPal, SolarCity, SpaceX, and Tesla — how does Musk do business?

A lot of Money is different from what makes it.

In a 2014 BBC interview, Musk said that Money was not his motivation, adding that he had nothing against pursuing wealth "if it's done the right way and the right way."

Speaking to the National Executive Committee in 2017, Musk said his motivation was to be able to "think about the future and be happy about it."

He echoed that sentiment last week when he posted an old tweet on his Twitter timeline after becoming the world's richest man.

"I donate half my Money to helping Earth's problems and a half to establish an autonomous community on Mars to ensure life continues if we get dinosaurs or WW3. And we are destroying ourselves."

The first rule is to think.

Musk is a vocal proponent of the philosophy of first principles — a thinking strategy that great scholars like Aristotle use to analyze the constraints behind problems.

In his TED talk in 2013, Musk said that in this strategy, you "go from there to facts and root cause, as opposed to reasoning by comparison." Simply put, this strategy looks at delivering the best product objectively without looking at what everyone else is doing.

In an interview, Musk used the cost of batteries as an example to explain the plan.

"Some will say, 'History shows that batteries cost $600 per kilowatt hour so that it won't improve in the future.' But you will reply, 'No, what are the material constituents of batteries?'" 

The first rule comes down to you. Say, 'OK, what are the constituents of the batteries? What's the market value of the components?'" he said.

These elements include cobalt, nickel, aluminum, carbon, polymers for separation and seal, and some polymers for strength markers.

"How much would each of these things cost if we bought them on the London Metal Exchange?" Musk explained. With this system, the price would drop to about $80 per kilowatt hour, slightly lower than the original price.

Taking these materials and combining them into a battery cell shape will yield much better performance cheaper than anyone realizes battery than anyone realizes," he added. "

SpaceX used the same understanding of the principles of the fundamental truth to significantly reduce the cost of launching a rocket. Between 1970 and 2000, the space shuttles, when they were working, could launch a payload of 27,500 kilograms at $54,500 per kilogram. 

Meanwhile, the SpaceX Falcon 9, the rocket used to reach the ISS, brought it down to just $2,720 per kilogram.

When you take these materials and combine them into the shape of a battery cell, you can have a much more effective batteries hypotheses based on the evidence, reaches conclusions, tries to disprove conclusions, and enlists others' assistance in disproving them; if no one can break them, it's probably a good thing.

In short, Musk's product development strategy focuses on determining beyond a reasonable doubt that a given solution to a problem is correct. 

Beginners often make the mistake of taking the wrong or incomplete approach to a problem leaving details or trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist. Musk's method avoids this problem by working hard to eliminate the idea until the only possible outcome is that the idea will work.

Focus on product development.

Musk believes in focusing on "signal over noise" and spends more time on product development. He says, "Do not waste time on things that do not improve things."

Musk told Y Combinator president Sam Altman, "I think a lot of people think I will spend a lot of time in media or business." 80% of Musk's time goes to engineering and design. Engineering and design, so it's developing the future of products. That's 80% of it."

Make learning a priority and work hard.

Although Musk holds a bachelor's degree in physics and economics from the University of Pennsylvania, his education must be improved to run an aerospace company. 

When you combine these materials into the shape of a battery cell, you can have a much more effective battery and adviser than when the company started in 2002 and SpaceX's first VP of business development.

Musk took to memorizing books and so learned from other arts. It was as if it would take the experience out of them. He listens to people," Cantrell told Business Insider.

He also says he works hard and sleeps on Tesla's factory floor while the Tesla Model 3 drives behind him. Although he had to work more than 120 hours a week in the past, it has been reduced to 80-90 hours a week.

"I always move my seat everywhere - well, I don't have a seat. I move everywhere. The trunk and big branches problem is with Tesla," Musk said. "I am here because I believe someone must come out of the front line."

Take risks and overcome fear.

Musk says it's natural to be afraid and that most of the time, his fear is "powerful." However, when something is important, "you believe in it so much that you do it despite the fear."

He also says that killing people to some extent can help: "If you accept the possibilities, it reduces the fear."

For example, when he started SpaceX, he thought the chances of success would be less than 10% and accepted that he could lose everything. However, there may be some progress.

Elon Musk said to Altman, "Even if we die, maybe other organizations will pick up the baton and continue,"

Musk is also big on risk-taking. My earnings from PayPal were $180M. Elon Musk said I invested $100M in SpaceX, $70M in Tesla, and $10M in Solar City. I have to borrow money for the rent," Musk said.

Things are challenging with SpaceX or Tesla. After SpaceX's first three launches failed, the company nearly folded in 2008.

"In terms of life experiences, this was a bad year for me," Musk told CBS.

Tesla, which he founded in 2004, also came close to bankruptcy due to several problems. When the financial crisis hit, Musk had limited options.

'I can keep the money, then the companies will die, or I can keep the money I have left, and there might be a chance,' he told the BBC. However, he continued to invest, and the rest is history.

Dream big, and don't back down.

Musk's vision is superb, from colonizing Mars, attaching artificial intelligence devices to human skulls, and building trains to run in space.

For example, Musk's goal was not to get the best return on risk when SpaceX was founded; he told Altman. Musk has realized that if rocket technology doesn't improve, we'll be stuck on Earth forever. 

At the time, the major airlines were interested in improving their old technology every year, not coming up with something new.

"People sometimes think technology gets better yearly, but it doesn't. Smart people should work like crazy to improve it. That's how every technology gets better," he said.

In 2002, after selling to PayPal and eBay, he decided between a new project in space or electric cars, thinking the first would attract few investors.

"I thought, 'No one would be crazy enough to create a space, so I'll create a space,'" he said during an SXSW interactive panel in 2018.

Although many "crazy" people tried to tell him not to enter the rocket business, he got SpaceX off the ground. Last year, SpaceX launched 26 missions, one every 14 days. That same year, launches carried astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) twice.

"I think it's important to view knowledge have a future that's interesting and exciting," Musk said in a 2017 TED talk. "I think there's a reason you wake up in the morning and want to live. Like, why do you want to live? 

What's the point? What motivates you? What do you like about the future?"

"But if we're not there and if the future doesn't include being out among the stars and having a multiplanet, I find it depressing if that's not our future." -Monkey," he added.

Q&A

What IQ level is Elon Musk?

Ans: 155

How early does Elon Musk wake up?

According to Musk, he typically goes to bed at 3 a.m. he wakes up by 9:30 a.m.