The Elon Musk Secret That You’re Missing
If you don’t know who Elon Musk is then you can catch up with a quick browse of his Wikipedia page or if you’re so inclined then there is a great biography by Ashlee Vance.
When you look at the astounding list of accomplishments that Musk has under his belt it’s hard NOT to be impressed. After all a guy that lands a rocket on a boat and pre-sells 400,000 cars in the same month is a force to be reckoned with. He has shot inspirational shock waves through the circles of tech entrepreneurs across the world.
However the inspiration can lead to frustration if you’re not careful because when looking up to a guy like Musk it’s easy to get discouraged with the progress (of lack of) in your own business.
It’s easy to get frustrated with anyone you look up to, because often you’re looking at their 3rd or 4th act while you’re working on your 1st or 2nd.
The reason you’re hearing about them is that they have gone through a couple iterations and they have gotten some traction. Let’s look at Elon as an example..
- Age 12 (1983) — sold code for his BASIC-based video game “Blastar” amongst being bullied by the school kids so badly that he was unconscious.
- Zip 2 (1995) — An “Internet City Guide” for the internet newspaper publishing industry. Started with his brother while living in their office and showering at the YMCA. (Musk received $22 Million when it sold and invested $10M in X.com)
- X.com / PayPal (1999) — Online financial services sold to eBay for $1.5 Billion which went through a ousting as CEO as well as dilution of investment. (Musk received $165 Million investing it all in SpaceX and Tesla)
- Space X (2001) — Rocket Transportation company with contracts from private companies as well as NASA.
- Tesla (2004) — Electric car and energy company
The one thing that runs through each one of Elon’s steps is that he continually keeps moving and keeps chasing new opportunities and solving problems as they pop up. He never expected to hit a home run on day one. It’s easy to trivialize this but it could not be more important. It could be easy to look at this and say “oh he’s just chasing another high-risk venture” but that is doing it a disservice. What is really happening is that a vision is cast and then the appropriate baby steps are taken to solve each problem incrementally. Let’s look at how this has played out.
The extent of Musk’s space ambitions was a concept was a miniature experimental greenhouse on Mars to spark public interest in space exploration. What did he do to accomplish this? He started to attend prominent Space and Mars conferences, meeting people, learning about rocket technology. He was taking the small steps into the industry he wanted to get into, without making a wholesale investment right off the bat. That eventually led him to building a team and the realization that the raw materials for building a rocket actually were only 3 percent of the sales price of a rocket at the time. This was a problem that he sought to solve with SpaceX; lowering the cost of access to space. Again the lesson is that he was always moving forward and taking small steps, not trying to solve the whole problem day one. Even now the first step to Mars is making a reliable reusable rocket, so he’s laser focused on doing that (making historic boat landings along the way!). Yes, he’s outlining plans for the future of colonizing Mars but taking baby steps along the way, continual progress.
Look at Tesla, it’s the first major auto startup since Chrysler in 1925 that’s a home run! The history of Tesla is a little more muddy than that, with Musk coming in as an investor. They were basically electrifying a Lotus and had to completely start over multiple times, nearly going bankrupt in 2008. The Model 3 which pre-sold 400,000 units is really part 3 of a master plan of baby steps. Start with a high end car and then a luxury sedan and then a mass market affordable sedan. The interesting thing about Tesla is that, like SpaceX they are solving problems along the way. Tesla has taken their breakthroughs in car battery technology and launched battery products for residential use and commercial utilities. Always moving forward and solving problems incrementally. They were not even talking about commercial battery storage units back in 2004.
When you look at Elon Musk, by all means it’s a great thing to get inspired but that does not mean you need to be Elon Musk. It means you need to learn the things that you can apply to your own life. Take the constant progress approach from Musk and you can celebrate the movement and progress and not drown in frustration.
