What’s better than founding a billionaire dollar company? How about founding 3? Well that’s exactly what the amazing entrepreneur Elon Musk has done and he’s got much more planned at the young age of 45. Here are 6 lessons courtesy of Elon Musk that should help you and your company on its way:
1. Endlessly seek criticism
“When my friends get a product, I ask them to please not tell me what they like. Rather, tell me what you don’t like. And if I’ve asked that a few times of people, then they will start automatically telling me without me having to always ask the question…You should take the approach that you’re wrong. Your goal is to be less wrong.”
2. Understand the fundamentals in order to challenge reality
Ever heard yourself or someone else say ‘that’s just how it is and how it’s always been’? Musk suggests you “boil things down to the most fundamental truths. Then reason up from there.”
3. Focus on signal over noise
Musk refuses to invest money into anything that will not directly benefit the product offering. “At Tesla, we’ve never spent any money on advertising. We’ve put all our money into R&D, engineering, design, and manufacturing to build the best car possible. When we consider spending money, we ask if this will create a better product? If not, we don’t proceed with spending the money.”
4. Create a contingency plan that considers failure as an option
Disrupting any industry is always going to require endless work, dedication, commitment and of course planning. Anticipating failure and planning accordingly is vital and this was the case with Elon Musk and SpaceX; “If we don’t get the first SpaceX rocket launch to succeed by the time we’ve spent $100 million, we will stop the company. That will be enough for three attempted launches.” SpaceX was successful on the third launch and this won them a $1.6 billion contract from NASA. “Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.”
5. Remove worries (live the worst case scenario)
At just 17, Elon Musk forced himself to live off $1/day and not because he was poor but so he could see if he had what it took to live the life of an entrepreneur. “I figured if I could live off a dollar a day then, at least from a food stand point, it’s pretty easy to earn $30 a month.”
6. Solve problems beyond yourself
Despite his incredible wealth, Elon Musk never speaks of his personal value. With the option to buy an island and retire after selling his first company Zip2 for $307 million he instead elected to start another company. His focus and self-questioning is focused on “what are some of the problems that are likely to affect the future of humanity?” He goes further to state “If something is important enough, even if the odds are against you, you should still do it.”
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