With the optimism to tackle massive goals you can often achieve success eve if
you fall a bit short of your original target.
Challenge yourself to think big and this will often yield big returns.
Attract Great People.
All a company is, is a group of people working together to create a product or
service.
In his commencement speech at USC Elon Musk explained that if you are creating
or joining a company the most important thing is to attract great people.
“Join a group that is amazing that you really respect or if you are building a
company you’ve got to gather great people.”
Strive to Be Significantly Better Than The Competition
Put yourself in the shoes of the consumer, Elon says.
“They are going to buy the trusted brand unless there is a big difference.”
Be Extremely Tenacious.
The determination to keep going when the going gets tough is what saved SpaceX
and Tesla when both were on the verge of bankruptcy.
Elon poured all of his money from the sale of PayPal into these companies so they
could survive and his tenacity in doing so saved them from insolvency.
The perseverance and hard work Elon has shown in making every company he has
worked with a success reminds me of this quote from Steve Jobs:
Consider The Worst Case Scenario.
When Elon decided he wanted to be an entrepreneur at 17 years old he forced
himself to live off $1 per day.
At that time, he lived mainly off hot dogs and oranges.
“I figured if I could live off a dollar a day then, at least from a food stand point,
it’s pretty easy to earn $30 a month.”
Elon didn’t do it because he was poor. He did it to see if he had what it takes to
lead the life as an entrepreneur.
Since he was successful with this experiment he knew that money wouldn’t be an
issue.
By experimenting with what it actually felt to be poor he realized he could do it if
he had to.
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