I’ve just finished listening to the biography of Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance:

It was a really interesting story and as well as being entertained for a week or so on my work commute I came away with a few lessons that I think I could apply to my life.

Before I go into what I took from this book here is an Infographic of his life from Funders and Founders which shows Musks life visually:

So now you have an overview of his journey lets go into what can be learned from his extraordinary life:

1. Aim high & Think big

When it comes to thinking big, I think few people can compete with Musk.

Rather than trying to start a simple buying and selling business or something, he decided he wanted to revolutionize the banking system, save the human race from global warming and also provide a multi-planetary option just in case that didn’t work.

Although many people (Including his own employees) thought that what he was trying to accomplish was impossible in most cases, he would still push himself and everyone around him to get it done.

Because of this he managed to get ahead of everybody else and accomplish what many believed to be the impossible.

The following two quotes sum up this point to me:

“Shoot for the moon, Even If you miss, You’ll land among the stars”

(It’s funny to me that a quote that would usually be an exaggeration is actually out-done by Musk who is actually aiming for Mars…)

and

“The People who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do”

Take Home Message

What I took from this is that no idea is too big or too unrealistic, as long as you have a plan to get there then you should try it because you might surprise yourself with what you can actually get done.

2. Set Ambitious Goals

This point ties in well with the last one because not only did Elon set impossible goals he also set them on an unrealistic time scale.

When he said something would take an hour the people around that took that to mean a day or two and when he said a day they set aside a week or two to get it done.

Borrowing from Parkinson’s law (Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion) Elon was able to cut down mammoth tasks down and get them done a lot faster than anyone would think possible.

It wasn’t all plain sailing though as to get these goals done himself and his employees would frequently work long days to get it all done:

“We all worked 20 hours a day, and he worked 23 hours.” — Julie Ankenbrandt on working with Musk at the start-up X.com

On top of this he often missed public deadlines and release dates which kept having to be pushed back. (Not always going down well, especially with the Tesla Pre-Order Crowd)

source

Take Home Message

It pays to set ambitious timelines to speed up the work progress but there are many things to take into account such as customer expectations and what can actually be delivered.

3. Do Your Research & Surround Yourself With Great People

Elon had always done a lot of reading from a young age (Often reading for 10 hours at a time) which allowed him to understand the world around him and I would argue allowed him to connect the dots that nobody else could see. This habit continued into his adult life when he would read all he could about rockets when starting SpaceX:

“We’re all hanging out in this cabana at the Hard Rock Cafe, and Elon is there reading some obscure Soviet rocket manual that was all moldy and looked like it had been bought on eBay.” — Kevin Hartz, an early PayPal investor

On top of doing a lot of reading Elon would also hire the best people possible to work for him, seeking out the leading students at top universities as well as people who are doing extraordinary things in the fields he is entering.

These people would often be drawn to Musk as he was always working on something revolutionary and had interesting problems to solve which attracted the brilliant minds that ended up at Elon’s companies.

Once they were there Elon picked their brains to such an extent that the people thought they were being grilled to see if they actually knew their stuff but he was just learning from their expertise.

Take Home Message

Learn as much as you can about the fields you want to get into as the old saying goes

“You don’t know what you don’t know”

Learning lights up the unknown and can clear the path and save a lot of unnecessary work as well as giving you new dots to connect.

Do all you can to surround yourself with people you can learn from as their experience can be invaluable.

4. No Doesn’t Always mean No

Elon was always one not to take no for an answer, which led to a lot of his success but it wasn’t always the big ideas like wanting to go to mars which we refused to take no for an answer.

Often times people are told no without actually thinking about it, one example is the Tesla touch screen:

Elon wanted to put a 17 inch touch screen in the cars.

He was told by engineers that this couldn’t be done because car manufacturers didn’t supply this

Elon responded by saying of course they don’t because nobody has done it before

He told them to go to the computer manufacturers to get the screen to put in the car

He was then told by the computer manufacturers that it couldn’t be done due to the heat and vibration it would be subjected to as they are not built for that

Elon tested them anyway and they stood up to the conditions fine

The screens were put in the cars.

Take Home Message

You shouldn’t stop at the first hurdle, it pays to question what people are assuming when they are telling you no and then see if the assumptions they are making are correct.

5. Don’t Agonize over details, Just start

This last one isn’t something that Elon did or advised people to do but just something that I noticed.

A lot of people (Especially me) refrain from doing things until they are perfect. They need the right company title, the right logo, the right business plan or idea. Until they have that then there is no point in doing anything because it will all be for nothing.

What I realized from this book is that you usually aren’t known for the first things you do so there is no need to spend a long time agonizing over what the names are or what it looks like because people only remember the finished product or what it looks like now.

What I mean is that when people think of Musk, the majority don’t think of Zip2 or X.com, most people think Tesla, SpaceX and some people Paypal. These companies all came later after tweaks and improvements when he had already moved into the business world and got things done.

Other examples of this are:

Pete’s Super Submarines » SUBWAY

Stag Party » Playboy

Jerry’s Guide to the World Wide Web » Yahoo

AuctionWeb » eBay

Blue Ribbon Sports » Nike

Brad’s Drink » Pepsi-Cola

BackRub » Google

Take Home Message

You can change your company name, logo or even service after you have started so there is no need to get everything right before you start. Just do it and adjust as you go.

Conclusion

The take home messages are these:

1. What I took from this is that no idea is too big or too unrealistic, as long as you have a plan to get there then you should try it because you might surprise yourself with what you can actually get done.

2. It pays to set ambitious timelines to speed up the work progress but there are many things to take into account such as customer expectations and what can actually be delivered.

3. Learn as much as you can about the fields you want to get into as the old saying goes

“You don’t know what you don’t know”

Learning lights up the unknown and can clear the path and save a lot of unnecessary work as well as giving you new dots to connect.

Do all you can to surround yourself with people you can learn from as their experience can be invaluable.

4. You shouldn’t stop at the first hurdle, it pays to question what people are assuming when they are telling you no and then see if the assumptions they are making are correct.

5. You can change your company name, logo or even service after you have started so there is no need to get everything right before you start. Just do it and adjust as you go.

What lessons have you taken from Elon musk? What other leaders or public figures have taught you the most?

Let me know in the comments!