Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance
What an amazing book and what an amazing story
of an incredible entrepreneur.
If you are an aspiring entrepreneur, you have
to learn from Elon Musk.
He's one of the greatest entrepreneurs of
our time.
One of the cofounders of PayPal moving on
to doing Space Ex and Tesla and Solar City.
He has just been a phenomenal entrepreneur
in so many different industries.
So what did I learn what did we learn from
this book from Elon Musk's biography?
And I'm sure there will be more biographies
written of him he's still a young guy there's
still a lot he will be accomplishing in this
life.But one of the greatest lessons you can
learn from Elon is believing in the cause
rather than the strategy to achieve to get
their outcome.
Believing in why you want to do something.
Believing in the cause so passionately that
it doesn't matter whether you're going to
succeed at it or not you're just going to
keep on going after it.
So when after he made around $250 million
from the acquisition of PayPal he started
investigating he started building a rocket
company and his friends thought he was crazy
they really thought he was crazy to just throw
away his money his hard earned money into
something crazy like a rocket company doing
a private enterprise doing Rockets or trying
to launch rockets but Elon was not to be deterred.
Some people have often asked him why did you
go down this endeavor this crazy endeavor
of launching rockets into space did you think
you're going to be successful at it and he
said no I did not Think that we were going
to be successful but she said and I quote
him he said I really believe that if something
really important you must really go after
it even if the likely outcome is failure.
Very powerful very profound it's almost understanding
that when you have a very strong why it doesn't
matter how you're going to accomplish it you're
just going to figure it out.
If you know you're why the how will come and
that is what Elon was trying to tell us that
if it's important enough the probability of
the outcome doesn't matter you have to keep
on going after it because it's just so important.
Another story from his life I love to talk
about his stories because they teach us a
lot.
Another story of his life his personal life
when he was wooing his wife Justine they were
in college and he was he had just met her
and asked her out on a date and she agreed
but then when he showed up to pick her up
she basically flaked on her she did not show
up for the date.
But Elon was so persistent he went and searched
her best girlfriend asked her what her favorite
flavor of ice cream and ask her where she
was going to be on this day at this time and
he showed up at the library with two cones
of chocolate chip ice cream just because he
knew she wanted it she liked that.
So he was not to be deterred if he wanted
her he was going to get her that's what Justine
said as well Elon was going to call her he
keep on calling and calling and calling until
she answered the phone and he was so persistent
he just could not take no for an answer.
She said he's like a terminator once he sees
that he wants you he'll just log on you locks
and on he says you shall be mine or this thing
shall be mine.
So that is the amazing thing about Elon he
Believe in the cause more than the strategy
that he took the possible outcome in that
moment because he was just going to keep on
trying and one of the things he said in 2008
he was about to lose both Tesla and space
X almost on the verge of bankruptcy he said
the thing that bothered him the most was the
idea that people would stop believing in space
exploration and people would stop believing
in electric cars.
he wasn't just rattled with the idea that
he would lose all his Wealth, he was much
more worried about the fact that the cause
which was electric cars and space exploration
so he did not want people to lose Faith in
something as important as that and that is
really really important to understand the
difference between the why of doing something
and the how of doing something the cause versus
the strategy of getting to that cause.The
other thing that really stands out about Elon
is his willingness to just bet it all, to
die for it.
He has a very high tolerance for pain and
he would go all in he is relentless.
The thing about Elon is that he’s willing
to stake it all.
He’s willing to go all in and that is why
his rate of success is very high.
It sounds counterintuitive but a lot of things
in life are counterintuitive that way.
So he is like that, when he was starting his
own company and when he was seeking funding
too, the venture capitalist after they talk
to him they would invest and he wanted to
understand or when they tried to figure out
or when he was trying to seek funding they
would ask him questions one of the things
he would say is like I am a samurai.
I am willing to die.
I am staking my existence on this company
so that is the way I operate this business.
I will do whatever it takes to make it work
and that is what kept the venture capitalist
coming at him.
One of the greatest stories of his life, greatest
now in retrospect of back then when it was
one of the most painful times of his life.
In 2008 he had divorced Justine, his first
wife, and he had 5 kids from his first marriage.
Not only that, he was both Space X and Tesla
was about to go bankrupt and this is in December
near Christmas time and they’re both about
to go bankrupt and Elon is wondering if he
should split his money between the two companies
or splitting wouldn’t work go with one way
or the other but he couldn’t just do that
either because he wanted both of them to survive.
So he got to the brink of it almost the brink
that he wouldn’t be able to make payroll
the next day and some of the venture capitalist
on his test line assessment, they started
to feel like they could get a lot more.
They wanted ownership of the company by figuring
out because they figured out that if they
could twist his arm they could make some quick
money but Elon didn’t want to do that so
he refused he kept on persisting trying to
figure out a way to make money almost to the
point 23rd of December 2008 he still didn’t
have the money the companies were going to
go shut down in a week’s time and he was
living on his friend’s couch since his personal
fortune was down to a few hundred thousand
dollars and he was maxed out but he kept on
hustling and in 2008 December 24th or 23rd,
NASA came calling and they awarded him a $1.6
billion dollar contract and then he was able
to fund around Tesla because he was able to
tell his investors that he was going to take
a loan and so on and so forth.
But the main thing is that he went so close
to failure, he went so close to being all
out of everything but he kept on going he
did not give up on the dream, he did not give
up on the cause and that is the amazing thing
about this guy.
He is willing to take it to the death and
if that is the conviction you have for your
startup, for your business then you could
see why you’d be successful.
The other thing to learn about Elon is this
hardcore work ethic and he is famous for saying
if you work for 50 hours a week and I work
100 hours a week, I will do in 5 years what
you take 10 years to do.
So I will work hundred hours a week.
More than that he works every day of the week.
In fact, there are stories that he will setup
his desk in the middle of the factory on Fridays
and Saturdays and Sundays just to emphasize
that he’s working and he expects everyone
else to be working hard as well.
When he was starting, there’s another story,
they did not even rent an apartment.
They said they were just going to use the
office.
They’re going to sleep in the office, they’re
going to shower at the YMCA, and they’re
going to work all day long on the startup
and that’s what they did and Elon would
sleep under his desk in the night times after
doing coordinating all night long whoever
was the first one to came in the office he
would just wake him up and get back on the
computer and start again.
That was the maniac obsession he had with
hard work with doing it no matter what.
And even when he was dating this and he had
a girlfriend, the girl would come over and
would actually sleep at the office because
that was the only option she had and she was
okay with it.
This guy was on a mission so he was not going
to be stopped.
He was going to keep working hard.
The other thing that really stands out is
his thirst for knowledge and reading.
So when he was 12 years old he was reading
10 hours a day.
He would read like 2 books a day and in 4th
grade he ran out of books to read in his school
library.
He ran out of all the books to read in his
school library.
So he went on to read Encyclopedia Britannica
and he read all the Encyclopedia Britannicas.
That is his thirst for knowledge and it shows
because he’s one of the most knowledgeable
man out there when it comes to all these different
perspectives.
Physics, Astronomy, Electric cars, rocket
science, or biographies of famous people,
science fiction.
His favorite book was Hitchhikers of the Galaxy.
He loved to read, he loves to read, he loves
to understand and there’s a famous story
where all his friends were partying it up
in Las Vegas after they had made their hundreds
and hundreds of dollars in Paypal, and Elon
had also made $250 million dollars.
While people were partying at the pool, Elon
was sitting in a corner reading some obscure
rocket science manuals and books and his friends
were just surprised at how intense this guy
is when it comes to seeking knowledge and
figuring it out and his companies and he did
not have the knowledge to build electric cars,
he did not have the knowledge to build a rocket
company but he figured it out.
He read it, he went to the experts, he seeked
out knowledge and that’s always been a constant
theme in his life.
So really powerful ideas from one of the greatest
entrepreneurs of our time.
I highly recommend you look into learning
from Elon, great guy.
