Elon Musk and…Pyramids?

Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash

CORRECTION: Elon Musk and…the Social Pyramid of Success

No, it wasn’t Elon and his force of aliens that built the pyramids in Egypt…though, that is a pretty great conspiracy theory. I’m referring to Musk and his status on the social pyramid of success — which looks something more like this:

Messy notes from my TKS notebook.

A little bit of background:

As a new student at The Knowledge Society, I’ve already been exposed to some pretty mind-boggling concepts — the social pyramid is one of them. It encapsulates the prominent differentiation between conventional and unconventional success.

Allow me to explain:

1. The unskilled worker (the level at the very bottom of our pyramid): These people tend to opt for careers requiring little to no skills (custodians, taxi drivers, correctional officers….)
2. Slave to the paycheck (2nd level from the bottom): Not too many skills required, something like secretaries or librarians
3. Degree-owners (3rd): They’ve done some post-secondary education with a relatively good salary (Bsc, BCom…) people with degrees are often viewed as “successful” in society’s eyes.
4. Smart people (4th): Absolute experts in their area (like a Ph.D. owner)
5. Legit people (5th): They know how to apply their absolute knowledge beneficially
6. Activators (6th): People who can carry out these applications as something material for the real world (Elon).

Individuals pertaining to 4,5,& 6 are essentially “untouchable”/ “irreplaceable”

Okay…so what’s up with Elon and the Pyramid?

Musk started coding at 12, made a video game, sold it to a magazine, went on to found PayPal, sold that, sat down and thought of all of humanity’s struggles, and founded/invested in/became the CEO of companies (SpaceX, Tesla, Boring Company, SolarCity, NeuraLink…) that are already altering our surroundings. ← Elon bibliography in a sentence.

Musk is in the 0.1% on our pyramid of social success. He’s pretty high up there (he’d be considered an activator (#6) since he takes knowledge-based applications & builds on them). Yeah, he’s a billionaire and he found unconventional success; Elon Musk is one of the coolest guys ever — but why? How? My question is…

What can ordinary people, like you and me, do to somehow follow in his footsteps and become…extraordinary?

1. Mindset: We’re not getting anywhere if our outlooks on life tend to be negative, if we’re scared of failure, or if we’re not driven enough to reach our destination in the first place. We must have a positive outlook on life, welcome failures with open arms, get creative, take risks, and find the motivation to work hard towards our goals.
2. Having Charisma: Pretty straight-forward — you wanna be likable. If you wanna build a cool flamethrower to catch your fans’ breath, go ahead. Jokes aside: being a likable person accentuates success. It is a crucial element since it has a heavy correlation with our next step…
3. Networking: Having solid relationships with other people. Build friendships and become acquainted with people who you believe can give you some sort of value; ensure that the acquaintance is mutually beneficial. Just knowing the right people means you are more susceptible to becoming successful. Being charismatic helps with the whole networking process.
4. Figure stuff out: You cannot always expect someone to give you the answers. Strive towards putting in the time and effort to learn and understand things by yourself. Seek guidance when absolutely necessary.
5. Knowledge and Skills: be knowledgeable. learn. practice your knowledge, finetune your skills. trial and error is where it’s at.

So basically:

1. Elon is a really successful guy (top 0.1% on our pyramid of success)
2. His success is unconventional: not how success is defined by a majority of society
3. He’s an activator
4. How to be untouchable? → have a positive mindset, be charismatic, network, figure stuff out, be knowledgeable and skillful
5. Aliens built the pyramids.

We must acknowledge that the pyramids weren’t built in a day; we can’t go from ordinary to extraordinary fast and that may be disappointing for those of us expecting results asap. Reaching an utmost level of success takes effort and, more importantly, time.

What we can do, however, is take baby steps by changing ourselves and our habits a little bit every week. Insane Netflix addiction? Wean yourself off of Netflix slowly until you reach the desired amount, productivity-wise, of screen-time. Interested in brain-computer interfaces? Go look it up & learn! Know somebody super legit? Talk to them! The smallest changes build up to form a better you and, in turn, set you up for big success.