I have always been fascinated with entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs (Apple), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Bill Gates (Microsoft) and Larry Page (Google) to name a few. They seemingly could see the future before anyone else and executed their vision into the most iconic businesses in the world today.
For many, their stories are the epitome of the American dream and represent the opportunity to go from an idea in your garage to a billion dollar company before your 30th birthday. For Elon Musk, the story is right out of the Silicon Valley playbook. With big payouts from successful exits at Zip2, X.com and Paypal, Elon could do whatever he wanted with the remainder of his life.
What would you do if you had millions of dollars in the bank and 3/4 of your life ahead of you? Retire on the beach? Help people share baby photos in your latest app?
How about save the human race from self-imposed or accidental annihilation? Too big? You need to think more like Elon Musk.
My latest read, Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future explores his story and really digs deep into Elon’s uncanny ability to rally the smartest people in the world around some of the most difficult challenges – specifically making humans multi-planetary (Space X) and energy independence (Solar City and Tesla).
Here is a list of my top 5 Musk traits that hint at why he is so successful.
1. He finds ways to get his employees to achieve the impossible
When Elon learned that commercially available avionics systems for his rockets where going to cost $10 million each he needed to find a way to get his team to build one for $10,000. Instead of telling his engineers, “You need to get this done by Friday at 2:00PM” he says “Can you get the impossible done by Friday at 2:00PM?” This distinction is important and makes employees feel like they signed up to do their own work.
2. Excellence is the only acceptable outcome
Shortcuts, compromises and good enough are not in Elon Musk’s vocabulary. Either you are trying to make something spectacular or you’re not. And if you’re not, Musk considers you a failure.
3. He surrounds himself with A players
Elon doesn’t have time for C or D players. If you are slowing him down from achieving his mission you wont last long at his companies. He often says, “The longer you wait to fire someone the longer it has been since you should have fired them.”
4. His vision is unwavering
In 2014 Elon announced that Tesla would open-source all of its patents for technologies related to their sophisticated batteries. Why would he want to give competitors access to information they could use to compete against Tesla? The decision for him was straightforward however. His overarching goal is for people to make and buy electric cars. Man’s future, as he sees it, depends on this.
5. He never stops learning
When Elon decided to start a space company he was already well on his way to becoming an expert on rocket engines but his ability to take that knowledge to the next level has been equally impressive. He is known for walking the floor of the Space X and Tesla factory floors and speaking with engineers at length about the technical inner workings of their products. He absorbs everything and I would argue is one of the most hands on CEO’s in all of Silicon Valley.
