7 Lessons from Elon Musk’s biography

1. Ice Cream

A brief story of how Elon Musk never gives up.

When he was a teenager in college, Elon was moving into his dorm when across the hall he saw a cute girl who he and every other guy in the dorm immediately fancied.

Although very much nerdy, Elon had confidence. He walked to her side of the hall, and immediately introduced himself and asked her if she wanted to get ice cream at a later date. On the day Elon and her were supposed to go on the date, he walked to her dorm and found a post-it note. “Sorry to cancel Elon I have to study for my spanish exam”.

For Elon Musk this was not defeat, this was an obstacle for an entrepreneur to solve.

He went to her best friend’s dorm and asked where his crush normally studies and what her favorite ice cream flavor was.

Elon Musk, the nerdy college student, walked into the Spanish library with two chocolate chip ice cream cones dripping in his hands.

That woman became his wife.

2. First Principles: Elon’s Academic Choices

When it was time to pick a college major, Elon did not shy away from a challenge. He transferred to Upenn his sophomore year and majored in economics. He took a fifth year to finish a degree in physics as well.

As a college student myself, this tells me that Elon wanted to learn as much as he possibly could and maximize his college investment return. It would be hard enough doing either of those majors at a school as competitive as his, doing both is extraordinary hard. But Elon does not shy away from a challenge, he fights it head on.

The second thing his choice in majors teach me is his intellectual curiosity. Although every major feeds curiosity in its own right, his choice is about breaking the world into first principles, or the simplest version of something. If you have a strong intellectual foundation, you can teach yourself the rest.

Physics is the most basic form of the universe, it breaks everything down into its core components. If Elon wants to understand how to make an beautiful electric vehicle with lithium ion batteries or how to launch a spacecraft into orbit and figure out how to get it to land safely back on Earth, physics is the foundation for doing all of that. To be sure engineers would have much more relevant experience, but by studying physics he was able to quickly pick up new concepts by reading books or having conversations with his engineers.

His choice in economics, like physics, is about breaking everything into its core components. In the case of economics, it is about breaking human nature into its root motivations, and animalistic tendencies. Humans act to maximize their well-being (economists call this utility) and minimize their “dangers” (in the animal kingdom this would be called predators, in the human kingdom this phenomena is called “in-laws”).

By studying the first principles of both natural nature and human nature, Elon is able to visualize the complete process of how an all electric vehicle could scientifically be feasible, while then thinking how — given human desire to maximize utility — this could be commoditized. His conclusion? In order for electric cars to succeed they can’t just be the best electric vehicle for a consumer, they have to be the best vehicle.

3. Ask simple questions, solve big problems.

The third lesson from Elon for entrepreneurs is to solve a problem you are passionate about. The thought process with Tesla did not begin with thinking how to maximize the utilization of multiple tightly packed bunches of lithium ion batteries to replace a fuel combustion engine.

Tesla began with a simple question. How can we build from scratch, an environmentally friendly car that is fun to ride?

The distinction here is important. Previous cars were electric versions of existing car models. They were not built from the ground-up to be electric. Instead of relying on preconceived models of cars, Tesla designed the Roadster from the ground-up with the electric battery in mind. Doing so allowed them to free-up car space that existing models used, even for electric cars.

Much the same way, SpaceX was the result of asking a simple question:
“How can we get humans to Mars?”. The daily actions of SpaceX such as cargo shuttles to the International Space Station are just a means of providing cash flow while SpaceX develops the technology and funds to achieve their real goals.

“An idea is only crazy until it becomes accepted, then it is called normal”

4. Stay Hungry

“The wolf on the hill is not as hungry as the wolf climbing the hill” — Arnold Schwarzenegger

Elon achieved his breakout success at age 28, when he sold his internet company Zip2 (it was an online version of Yellow Pages for newspapers). With $22 million in his pocket at age 28, Elon could have retired to the beach, put a few million into an ETF, and lived out his days a millionaire.

But he didn’t.

The same year that Zip2 was sold, Musk started his next company.

His next venture, which he oddly wanted to name X.com, was an online payment provider that worked through E-mail. The company later merged with their biggest competitor, PayPal. The investors of the merged company decided to go with the name PayPal for the new company, deciding X.com sounded too suggestive.

With a team of geniuses on board: Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and the “Paypal Mafia” (as they are now known), PayPal became a huge success for Musk. The company sold for $1.5B and Musk made $165M (7.36 times the amount of his first million dollar payday).

Yet, even revolutionizing financial services was not enough for the prodigy. He set his sites on space. Then electric vehicles. Then solar power. You get the point.

5. Earning Respect

Elon Musk was a self-taught programmer, had dual degrees from an ivy league university, sold two companies for hundreds of millions of dollars. It didn’t matter what he did next, investors wanted in.

So when Elon decided to pursue his dream and make SpaceX, it did not matter that he didn’t have a clue how to make rockets, his credibility in unrelated fields gave investors — and the public — confidence in him.

When he wanted to move into all-electric vehicles his knowledge of rockets wasn’t much help, but there is something about putting a rocket in space that gives a guy some credibility.

6. Get your hands dirty.

If anybody would have the potential to have the hubris to stop wanting to learn it would be Musk. Yet, he did not only not do that, he was more energetic than ever to learn. Earning millions from his earlier ventures allowed to him to finally make the companies he cared about, the ones that truly excited him.

Having a degree in physics gave Elon a decent understanding of basic principles of the ways rockets could function and the laws of space and fuel consumption, however, admittedly he did not know much about aerospace engineering. When he decided to create Space X, he committed his life and being to ensuring he consumes as much knowledge about rockets and space as possible. He read books, he made calculations, he interviewed the smartest people he could find on the topic. Elon wants to be the CEO who understands every job at his company and how to do it. He is not afraid to go underneath the rocket and work alongside the engineers.

When he first started as CEO he interviewed every single applicant personally. He also used to summon engineers to his desk (which was centrally located in the Tesla headquarters/factory and was easily spottable to employees across the factory), engineers were grilled on the nuances of rocketry, and especially in the earlier days this was more for Elon’s knowledge than to test his employees. By today, perhaps nobody at the Tesla factory, knows more about the details of the rockets than the CEO himself.

Entrepreneurs can learn from this. That is not to say everybody should go out and learn rocket science, but if you are a founder and find your technical knowledge is lacking, perhaps ask your employees more details about the tech, and try to understand how it works. Pick up a few books about the nitty gritty. Employees love having a boss who understands what they do, and the bosses themselves are better when they understand the details.

But don’t stop there. Interviewing and reading is not enough. Get your hands dirty. Do the jobs your employees do. If you own a coffee shop, make coffee alongside your employees. If you run an assembly line, made products alongside your colleagues. You will have a better idea of how to be a successful leader, and by leading by example you will be a better leader.

7. “Do or do not. There is no try” — Yoda

Most people accept defeat too easily. They say they did everything to succeed, yet they failed. Then they wonder why?

The answer is simple. You didn’t do everything you possibly could to ensure your success. You might have spent time watching TV, hanging out, or sleeping.

When SpaceX and Tesla were going through important periods Elon Musk would work 22 hours a day. He was a millionaire, he had employees, he didn’t need to work a single hour, yet he worked 22. For Musk, success is a binary result, there is either complete success or there is failure. Failure is not an option, so Elon works until success becomes the only possible outcome.

He expects the same of his employees. If he pulls an all-nighter working a rocket launch, he expects others to follow through. If he did get his hands dirty himself, there is no way other people would. But because Elon puts his money where his mouth is, he inspires others to follow through.

The mission of SpaceX and Tesla are extraordinary, and of course motivate the employees to work in ways that money never could, but when employees are running off of energy drinks and 3 days without sleep, it is Elon Musk working alongside you, that gives you the extra courage to keep working. Knowing that he himself believes so much that they are working for the betterment of humanity.

From a nerdy college student with dripping chocolate ice cream cones to putting humans on Mars, accepting defeat was never an option for Elon Musk. It shouldn’t be for you.

-HR