You've probably heard of one of the most controversial and ambitious personalities of our time--Elon Musk. He is an American engineer, inventor, entrepreneur, and investor; a dollar billionaire.
Elon Musk is the founder of the popular payment system PayPal and the main ideological inspirer of the superinnovative company Tesla. Musk set a goal of reducing the cost of space travel by 10 times, and to this end, he founded SpaceX in 2002, investing in it $100 billion from the sale of his previous campaigns. SpaceX is the private developer of a series of launch vehicles.
In 2018, Elon Musk was awarded membership in the Royal Society of London. Elon Reeve Musk is a man of developed intellectual ability, with great ambition and enthusiasm. He also has an inhuman capacity for work. Few people have such a combination of qualities.
And yet some useful secrets of his success each of us can adopt and use in everyday life.
- Communicate asynchronously.
"I prefer email and always try to communicate asynchronously. I'm great at correspondence."
Elon Musk tries to communicate through emails whenever possible. However, in order not to get bogged down in a huge amount of mail, he prefers his private e-mail address. Therefore, only those who know him personally have an opportunity to get in touch with the billionaire. This allows him to focus all of his attention on his main job.
- Learn to use email effectively.
"People do a better job if they know their end goal. And if they know exactly why they're aiming for it. And the most important thing is to start the day thinking that your work is enjoyable and satisfying.
In his spare time from work (creating rockets or new cars) Elon Musk is engaged in electronic correspondence. Often he sends out emails all over the company. They contain some important news or advice on how to improve working methods, discuss campaign goals or methods of communication with colleagues.
- Start the day with the most important thing.
"Try to discern a signal behind the noise - don't waste time on efforts that won't actually improve the situation in any way."
Elon Musk is the CEO of three companies. He heads Tesla, SpaceX and Neuralink. So Elon begins his working day with the most important tasks. First of all writing emails. This is necessary for employees to start or continue to work effectively. To keep things moving, not standing still. Typically, his workday begins at 7 a.m. Musk takes at least half an hour to work on emails. He meticulously examines the mail and focuses on what's most important.
- Learn to combine tasks.
"It turns out I can spend time with my kids and answer emails at the same time. If it weren't for that, I wouldn't be able to do my job."
Whenever possible, Elon Musk has successfully practiced multitasking in his work - this know-how is called bundling. Whenever possible, he groups things together. For example, while talking to a conversation partner during lunch, Elon answers e-mails.
- Take planning seriously.
"I don't spend time on abstract things and concepts, I solve engineering and production problems."
Running three companies at once is a huge feat. In this case, you have to take planning very seriously and carefully. And time is an important factor for Elon Musk. Like other successful people, he makes a detailed specific daily plan. His work calendar consists of five-minute segments. And it's not easy to find a window in it. Elon Musk devotes 80% of his time to the creation, design and production of new products.
- Develop
"Accept the fact that you are wrong. It's just your goal to be less wrong."
Elon Musk is always critical of himself. Although he has made tremendous accomplishments, he is always dissatisfied with himself. Musk is sure that the opportunities for growth in a variety of fields are not limited. Any problem can always be solved more efficiently, quickly or cheaply. Musk says, "Failure at work is the norm. If you don't have failures, then you're not an innovator."
- Listen to those around you.
"Constantly doubt yourself and wonder if you couldn't have done something even better."
For Musk, it's not just his own opinions that matter in his work. He listens carefully to those around him and greatly appreciates professional advice and intelligent statements. Musk advises other entrepreneurs to do the same. He also appreciates criticism, both to himself and to his employees. Of course, at first glance it may not seem very pleasant. However, there are benefits to it. Elon Musk tries to hire people who always say what they think.
- Learn all the time.
"It's important to think of knowledge as a kind of semantic tree: before you get deep into the branches and leaves, make sure you have strong roots and a trunk, meaning you understand the basic principles well. Otherwise the crown will have nothing to hold on to."
Elon Musk's brother, remembering his teenage years, said that he was able to read two books in a day. He literally absorbed knowledge. And as a result, Elon is well-versed in many sciences - mathematics, computer science, physics and engineering. For many years Musk deepened his knowledge in the main field and in parallel studied many other disciplines (T-shaped approach to education). As a result, having achieved excellent results in business, he uses his comprehensive erudition to make new and effective decisions in other fields.
- Set ambitious goals
"The first step is to establish that your goal is possible. And if it's possible, then, with some probability, that's what will happen."
Musk often sets very ambitious deadlines for his projects. All of his projects are ambitious and global. It is because of this that we now have reliable electric cars and reusable rockets. Think of the "father" of the automobile industry, Henry Ford. When Ford started producing cheap reliable cars, people said, "What's wrong with horses?" He made a very bold bet, and it played out.
- Use basic assertions and axioms
"I look at problems as a physicist, and physics teaches us not to operate on analogies, but rather to depart from axioms."
An axiom is a theory that requires no proof, i.e., a basic assumption that is taken as a basis. And then it is a statement that can be relied upon when dealing with complex issues. Let's analyze Musk's own thought process: "What are the parts that make up a rocket? They are aluminum alloys, carbon fiber, and some copper and titanium. And how much do these materials cost on the raw materials market? Well, I will tell you that the price of the materials that make up a rocket is usually no more than 2% of its cost. As a result of such thoughts, instead of buying ready-made rockets for a million dollars, Musk decided to buy cheap raw materials and components. And to produce rockets himself. Thus SpaceX was born.