Becoming Exceptional: Elon Musk
This is the beginning of a series dedicated to deciphering the underlying secrets to success.
Looking at the successful and inspiring people of the world, we will go beyond the details of their morning routine and skip past the prescriptive steps such as saving money and reading books. What we are uncovering here is the true magic behind the scenes. Let’s move past the fluff and find the real determinants to becoming exceptional.
The spiritual faith that leads them through turning around a dying company.
The perfect balance of the right and left brain required to create inspirational ideas and then execute on them using tactical logic.
The bold courage that seems to come so naturally to them, fueling them to push past all doubts and roadblocks.
I thought Elon Musk was the perfect person to kick this off, because he is quite vocal about his internal thought processes which has ultimately led him to become one of the most polarizing figures sitting on today’s world stage. However, that clear window into his mind is exactly what makes him so easy to analyze.
Many of the billionaires of today are considered to be a little quacky. Weird, eccentric, and unrelatable. Elon, a multi-billionaire, is no exception to the rule. But let’s dig deeper than just categorizing him as weird, although I do think it is useful to note that deviating from social norms is a common theme in this class of people.
Curiously, Musk was born on the 28th of June and is the stereotypical cancer with his emotional character, and intuitive understanding of the world. He could even be considered nurturing, as he finds meaning in life through “Doing something useful for other people, that I like doing.”
Say what you want about his character, but his service-oriented mission in life appears to hold true. Every company he ever owned had the aim of solving a problem and providing a service that no one else was working on. His focus on innovation means he was not focused on sales and marketing, or creating fluffy organizations. He wants to make an impact.
Matter of fact, Musk claims that he thought Tesla and SpaceX had less than a 10% chance of succeeding, and told his friends not to invest in the early stages. However, it is important to note that he was very strategic about solving problems that he knew people would find a lot of value in, people that had a sh*t-ton of money to be specific.
What can we gather from this information? It’s important to find a service and focus on doing good. Why? It’s inspiring. It leads to a high amount of energy and motivation to push you, and those that decide to join your endeavor, forward. As he says in his own words, “It’s more than solving problems, you want to do projects that are inspiring that make people excited about the future.”
This is a curious concept that I want to unravel a bit. There are a lot of discussions going on around motivation in the workplace. Or even motivation to become successful. I would argue that motivation comes from 1) Doing something you find has meaning and purpose 2) Believing you can achieve this and 3) Having fun doing it.
Therefore the single most important thing you should do is make sure you have an inspiring mission statement for your life. We can chart out how exactly to get there, but make it something that excites you. Something that makes you yearn for life. That energy is what you need in order to do great things. Without it, you will not go far.
A simple exercise I give my clients is writing down
What they enjoy doing
What they are good at doing
What combination of these will allow them to have the most impact on the world?
Why is it important to do good, you may ask. Today, I find many millennials jump into wholesaling or sales to make fast money, and although I understand the motivation since we are living in unprecedented times, having a positive overarching mission is critical. It is only through knowing you are doing tremendous good, that you are able to do the slightly negative things required to achieve it - without losing your “humanity.” Let me explain. Elon Musk notoriously has no concept of rules. He completely ignores societal norms, and even societal laws. His company sets off rockets without obtaining permits because “it takes too long.” However, it does seem he has his own set of internal laws in which he strictly adheres to. He does what he thinks is right and good, and everything menial in the way is far outweighed by that north star.
Without greatly benefiting the world, you will not be able to go far.
Option A - Let’s say you have a selfish goal. You will be able to do all the negative stuff, by removing your sense of morality. This is a slippery slope to a very unhappy life, and rarely long-lasting wealth.
Option B - You are good-hearted but your goal is not impactful enough. You will be incapable of breaking rules and hurting feelings in order to get the job done, because you won’t see the net positive purpose.
This is a very interesting concept to me, because while many people focus on net income, the richest tend to focus on good versus bad. The real, true drivers of wealth are not the obsession with the (fictional) concept of money, but the obsession with doing good, providing service, and solving problems.
Now, I would say this service-oriented mindset is a common thing among billionaires. However, what I find fascinating specifically about Elon is that he says starting at the age of 6, his mind was “exploding with ideas.” Years later in an interview, he also says “What’s really important is finding the right questions to ask.” This, to me, indicates that he has a very deep connection to the divine source. Many people will feel this after they undergo deep meditation. If we remove the interference of our society, and all the unimportant noise of our day to day dramas, we get a lot of ideas flowing to us. Many people in fact label it as a “river of ideas” because it somewhat rushes to you in an overwhelming way. Which is why it is so curious to me that Elon describes it as an explosion of ideas. He is tapped in, and I wonder if his childhood trauma is what enabled him to connect to that source so early on.
Elon had an abusive father, whom he said carried out plans of evil. He was also bullied in school. This disconnection from the traditional societal sources of love and safety ultimately may have led him to find faith. If you can’t rely on people around you, you have to believe in something. So he tapped into the divine source of creation. Once again, you can also find this connection. Instead of asking others, or “yapping” about your life as they say, simply get quiet and ask your questions almost internally. What is so unique to Musk, is of course his strong connection to this source. He is unshakeable - once he gets an idea, even if it has never been done before, he commits to it 100%. He follows his divine inspiration without second guessing.
He doesn’t care what other companies are doing. Without caring what other people think. Without letting doubt, fear, or insecurity hold him back. For him, it’s not personal. Failure is possible, and he is very accepting of this fact. He is able to commit to the goal because he is not doing it for self gain but rather a worthy initiative that was given to him.
Let’s look at some case studies. When he couldn’t get a job in Silicon Valley, he decided to create his own business. He thought SpaceX and Tesla would fail, but started them, investing millions of his own money to do so. What drives this pure initiative? It is a worthy endeavor for society, and he has the skills. If he doesn’t, then who will?
This is how you will know that your project or direction was divinely given. It’s not an emotionally charged endeavor, either. It's a matter of fact. It might start out with a Eureka! Moment, but then the action comes into play and it’s calculating in nature. This perfect handoff of the right and left brain is how we humans are intended to be. We receive creative inspiration, but carry it out logically.
Elon Musk has this innate ability to remove emotion and think logically even when so much is on the line. He chose an office instead of an apartment when he was starting his first business, because it was cheaper and they could tie into the internet from the internet service provider that lived below. Many people would find this to be damaging for their pride. Elon put his ideas before his pride. Emotion = removed.
*Note this might also be why he has 3 divorces. Connections with humans are significantly catered to the right side of the brain, so thinking practical when it comes to how you respond to others does not nurture connections.
Finally my favorite aspect of Elon is that he knows exactly how to stay in that inspired state. By having fun. Elon Musk started computer programming because he loved computer games. He had his entire team at SpaceX make one of the rockets pointier so that it would look like the rocket from the movie “The Dictator.” His first purchase when he sold his first company was a $1M McLaren F1, which he shortly crashed thereafter.
We are supposed to tap into joy and happiness, we are supposed to enjoy the ride.
It’s impossible to get yourself to continuously do difficult, challenging things if you do not feed your inner child. Don't take things too seriously. Make bold moves, but accept the possibility of failure. Uses humor to diffuse intense emotion. Do things just because you can. Not everything in life has to be rigid and calculating, matter of fact I would argue Elon Musk’s success came from his ability to balance his calculating, engineering mind that helps him build rockets with his creative, playful inner child that has made him the center of attention for the past 10 years. He is clearly enjoying the ride, but he still remembers to fill the gas tank, check the engine, and chart this path. I would recommend you take the same mindset if you want to move forward fast.
