
3 lessons from Elon Musk for aspiring startup founders.
After watching multiple interviews of Elon Musk and did a lot of research before writing this article. There are a LOT of advice from him but i have decided to pick 3 lessons that are most suitable for startup founders.
Well here they are:
1. Develop a first principle analysis
What is first principle analysis ?
First principle analysis is a way of thinking based on the most fundamental rather than analogy. What it means is that instead of doing things based on what has been done before or how other people doing, you try to boil things doing to most fundamental truths and reason up from there. It take more mental energy — Elon Musk
First principle analysis helps you get a better understanding of a complex problems or concepts by understanding its origin.
Your alternative, thinking by analogy is much easier because you draw the conclusion based on what has been done and our brains are wired to find the quickest and easiest way to solve a problem.
Thinking by analogy is useful when you are comparing the result between the past and the present.
The problem with analogy is that since you are drawing conclusions based on what has been done, it has the potential to miss some of the most important truth when trying to understand the unknown
Here is the difference between thinking though first principle and analogy:
- Electric cars and batteries.

Analogy : Electric cars will never work because batteries are expensive.
First principle : Purchasing individual batteries from cheaper sources allows us to make batteries that are much cheaper.
2. Uber

Analogy: taxi but with private cars
First principle: a cheaper form of transportation that you can request anytime and anywhere with a push of a button from your smartphone.
3. Startups failure

Analogy: 95% of startups failed
First principle: according to the statistic, the single biggest reason why startups fail is because their product has little or no market need.

2. How to build a product that is actually useful
In the interview with sam altman (president of YCombinator), sam asked elon
“How should someone figure out how they can be most useful?”
and elon said:
“Well, I think you make some estimates of, whatever this thing is that you’re trying to create, what would be the utility delta compared to the current state of the art times how many people it would affect. So that’s why I think having something that makes a big difference but affects sort of small to moderate number of people is great, as is something that makes even a small difference but affects a vast number of people. Like, the area under the curve.”
What does it mean ?
allow me to simplify elon’s answer by editing his answer
“Well, I think you make some estimates of, whatever this thing is that you’re trying to create, what would be the ( difference between how useful it is something that you aim to create minus what currently already have) * how many people it would affect”
For example:
So let’s say you’re aiming to build an unbreakable glass and this glass is 70% better than a normal glass. So your delta is 70. Now, How many people can afford & willing to buy your glass ?
Let’s say 10000 people are able to afford to buy your glass, your points under the graph would be (70*1000) = 70000.
Now, let’s say you’re aiming to build something that is going to give people the ability to regenerate their body faster and your product is 10% better than what people currently use, so your delta is 10.
let’s say it will affect 10000 lives, thus your point under the graph would be (10*10000) = 100000.
According to Elon you should create the 2nd product because it has a bigger impact compared the “unbreakable” glass. So in a nutshell,
Creating a product that is 10x better than the current competition and would affect 10000 people is the same as creating a product that is 1x better than the current competition and would affect 100000 people.
3. If you need inspiration words, you should not do it.
Different people has different personalities and strengths and the one’s who is on the top are the ones that “figure out” their strength. You DON’T have to be an entrepreneur to be rich, if that’s you’re aiming for.
You should ask your self
“ What is it that i want in life ? ”
It is much much much better to start anything if you know the end goal.
“How on earth are you going to achieve anything if you don’t even know what the target is ?”
Before you start, do a rigorous self analysis on yourself on why you want this thing you’re doing and if you still decide to go for it then do it regardless of what anyone says.
“If you need inspiring words, you should not do it” — Elon Musk
Conclusion
Start with a first principle analysis and reason up from there.
Build a product that will actually have a great impact.
Make sure you do a rigorous self analysis on yourself and seek for critical feedback on what you’re trying to do.
The decision is yours to take.
Next i’m going to take advice from a chinese Billionaire, you might know who… To be continue ~
Artikel ini di tulis oleh Willam Anputra beliau sering menulis artikel mengenai Software Engineering dan Programming dan merupakan Startup Enthusiast. Follow profilnya untuk mendapatkan update-an terbaru artikel-artikel beliau.
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