Elon Musk was a South African kid with a harsh childhood: he was bitten by bullies and his father left a big impact on his psyche. Since he was a child he developed skills in programming. He created a game called “Blastar” and sold it for $500. He developed into tough yet vulnerable man-child.
When he ended-up in Palo Alto he and his brother created ZIP2. When he sold it, Elon received $22mil. and invested into X.com and Pay Pall. After the sale <Musk received $250mil. Than opened SpaceX and Tesla.
Musk has an extremely high tolerance for risk and a craving for drama. his sense of mission pushed him to work extremely long hours (sometimes years without a day off) and sleep when and where he will be able to (under the desk in hi office or on the roof of a Tesla factory). Perusing his mission with his intensity he pushed a people who worked with him to move faster, take more risks, break rules and question requirements. (many quit and have been fired).
When hiring Musk prioritized attitude over resume skills. Skills can be taught and attitude – not. His definition of attitude – desire to work manically hard.
In all hi businesses he applied the same algorithm:
1. Question every requirement. Only requirement not to be questioned – ones that dictated by laws of physics.
2. Delete any part of process you can. If you don’t end up adding back 10% of them, then you didn’t delete enough.
3. Simplify and optimize. Only after the first two steps are done.
4. Accelerate cycle time. Every process can be sped up.
5. Automate. Mistake is to automate process what should not exist.
When hiring a technical managers Musk requires then to have hands on experience and spend at least 20% of working time in the field. Elon would never ask his troops to do something he is not willing to do. To resolve a problem he skips a level and meets with the level right below managers. His engineers, produce managers and designers and working side by side and engineers are dictating the rules. A maniacal sense of urgency is his main operating principle.
All these rules he uses in his companies: Tesla; SpaceX; BoringCo; Twitex(X); Neuralink; Pay Pall(X.com); Zip2 and SolarCity.
Elon doesn’t believe in marketing and doesn’t spend money on advertisements. His philosophy is: create an awesome product at an affordable price and it will sell it self.
Elon thinks that population is in decline, he is contributing to repopulation of the Earth with at least 10 children.
After reading this book I learned how to important to have sense if mission and clear vision of your goals. Elon sets high, unrealistic at first look, but clear goals. And after achieving them. he think that civilization is declining because it quit taking risks: “Every year there are more referees and fewer doers”, he says. Elon’s goal of Mars colonization by humans and building sustainable future for humanity on Earth made him a great innovator. Every decision he made, every technology he built were in pursuit of this goals, not vice versa. Also on my opinion, money, reaches and fame can not be a goal, it can only be a side affect after you successfully reached your goals.
