Elon Musk Work Ethic
Being the CEO of three entities, namely Tesla, SpaceX, and Neuralink Shares 10 Secrets for Insane Success 2024
#1 Start the Day with Critical Work by Elon Musk
Being the CEO of three entities, namely Tesla, SpaceX, and Neuralink, Elon Musk faces a multitude of daily responsibilities. To effectively manage his workload, he initiates his day by addressing his top priorities. For Musk, this entails tackling crucial emails that require his attention to ensure the smooth advancement of others’ tasks and projects.
His typical routine commences at 7 a.m., during which he dedicates at least thirty minutes to responding to essential emails. Musk employs a meticulous filtering process to discern the critical items from the non-essential, concentrating solely on the most significant matters.
“Focus on signal over noise. Don’t waste time on stuff that doesn’t actually make things better.”
Ellon Musk
#2 Use Feedback Loops
Musk maintains an exceedingly busy schedule, frequently conducting work from various locations on any given day. This constant demand for efficiency motivates him to continuously seek ways to optimize his use of time. Although he acknowledged not having delved into any books specifically dedicated to time management, Musk did offer some valuable insights on how individuals can enhance their time management skills:
“I think it’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better. I think that’s the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.”
Ellon Musk
An important part of Elon Musk work ethic is to incorporate not only his own feedback but also of others: he urges entrepreneurs to seek preferably negative feedback. While it might be hurtful at first, you normally end up getting a lot more out of it.
He also focuses on hiring the best people in any field that can provide consistent and truthful feedback.
Shortening the feedback loops lead to increased efficiency, faster implementation, and a better-finished product.
#3 Batch Tasks
As a component of Elon Musk’s work ethos, he strategically engages in multitasking. Whenever feasible, he employs a productivity technique called “batching,” where he consolidates multiple tasks into a single endeavor. For instance, he addresses emails while simultaneously eating or conducts meetings during lunchtime. Elon Musk encapsulates this approach with the following quote:
“But what I find is I’m able to be with [my kids] and still be on email. I can be with them and still be working at the same time… If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to get my job done.
Ellon Musk
#4 Scheduling
As a component of Elon Musk’s work ethos, he strategically engages in multitasking. Whenever feasible, he employs a productivity technique called “batching,” where he consolidates multiple tasks into a single endeavor. For instance, he addresses emails while simultaneously eating or conducts meetings during lunchtime. Elon Musk encapsulates this approach with the following quote:
“I don’t spend my time pontificating about high-concept things; I spend my time solving engineering and manufacturing problems.”
Ellon Musk
By splitting his day into 5-minute chunks, Musk manages to get more tasks scheduled for his work.
#5 Embrace Stretch Goals
Elon Musk’s most well-known personality traits is his inclination to establish highly ambitious deadlines for his companies’ ventures. He employs stretch goals as a means to shift perspectives:
“The first step is to establish that something is possible; then probability will occur.”
Ellon Musk
Here’s a story from a former SpaceX executive: “It’s like he has everyone working on this car that is meant to get from Los Angeles to New York on one tank of gas. They will work on the car for a year and test all of its parts. Then, when they set off for New York after that year, all the vice presidents think privately that the car will be lucky to get to Las Vegas. What ends up happening is that the car gets to New Mexico — twice as far as they ever expected — and Elon is still mad. He gets twice as much as anyone else out of people.” (emphasis mine)
The last sentence illustrates the power of stretch goals. Even in the face of failure, your goal was so outrageous, so impossible to achieve, that you celebrate the small achievements you made because you expected that nothing would come out of it.
The initial plan of Tesla was to start shipping the Roadster in 2006. The company pushed that deadline back several times until the car actually became available in 2008. Even though they released its car almost two years after the deadline, Tesla delivered the first completely battery-powered electric car.
“I say something, and then it usually happens. Maybe not on schedule, but it usually happens.”
Ellon Musk
Elon Musk’s stretch goals have given us a world where one of the best cars you can buy is electric, and where we finally have reusable rockets: “When Henry Ford made cheap, reliable cars, people said, ‘Nah, what’s wrong with a horse?’ That was a huge bet he made, and it worked.”
Setting goals that maintain the status quo doesn’t get you reusable rockets.
#6 Master Communication
Elon Musk when isn’t occupied with rocket development or transforming the automotive sector, there’s one consistent location where you’ll locate him: in his email inbox. He humorously remarked during a conference, saying, “I engage in a substantial amount of email — I’m quite proficient at it. It’s my primary expertise.”
His emails are characterized by remarkable clarity, brevity, and directness. An illustrative instance is the email he distributed to his entire staff addressing the use of acronyms, aptly titled “Acronyms Seriously Suck.”
Frequently, he communicates with his entire company via email, sharing updates, outlining communication practices, elucidating the company’s vision and mission, and providing guidance on enhancing productivity in the workplace.
“People work better when they know what the goal is and why. It is important that people look forward to coming to work in the morning and enjoy working.”
Ellon Musk
He is also a master at public speaking, converting complex concepts into easy-to-understand language using an authentic voice. Musk often uses the present tense when talking about visionary topics, a language trick that excites the listener into feeling the future is now.
#7 Use Asynchronous Communication
The initial productivity tip offered a subtle clue for this one: Elon Musk’s professional principles stipulate that he favors communication on his own schedule. This entails primarily resorting to email and text messaging, which are both asynchronous methods of communication.
“I do love email. Wherever possible I try to communicate asynchronously. I’m really good at email.”
Ellon Musk
He also makes himself hard to reach for people outside his company by using an obscure email address.
#8 Reason from First Principles
A foundational principle is a fundamental premise that cannot be derived from any other statement or proposition. It represents the sole certainty within a complex issue. Elon Musk employs a reasoning approach based on first principles, as opposed to relying on analogies or past experiences. This methodology involves constructing one’s reasoning from the very foundational elements:
“You look at the fundamentals and construct your reasoning from that and then see if you have a conclusion that works or doesn’t work. And it may or may not be different from what people have done in the past. It’s harder to think that way, though.”
Ellon Musk
Here’s an example of first principles reasoning, from Musk himself:
“What is a rocket made of? Aerospace-grade aluminum alloys, plus some titanium, copper, and carbon fiber. Then I asked, what is the value of those materials on the commodity market? It turned out that the materials cost of a rocket was around two percent of the typical price.”
Ellon Musk
Instead of buying a rocket for millions of dollars, Musk decided to purchase the raw materials for cheap and build the rockets himself in his own company.
And SpaceX was born.
#9 Develop a Growth Mindset
K initiated contact with a supplier to obtain a quotation for an electromechanical actuator, and the supplier provided a quote of $120,000.
Employing a first principles approach, Musk deconstructed the required components and enlisted the expertise of Steve Davis, who presently serves as SpaceX’s director of advanced projects. The objective was to create an actuator entirely from scratch for a cost of less than $5,000. Davis dedicated nine months to the design and construction process, ultimately achieving the production of the actuator at a remarkable cost of $3,900. This very actuator was subsequently deployed into space aboard the Falcon 1 rocket.
Elon Musk is perpetually driven by an unyielding pursuit of progress. Despite the substantial accomplishments of his companies, Musk remains keenly aware that there is always room for enhancement in every facet. He firmly believes that there is consistently a superior, swifter, or more cost-effective approach to accomplish tasks.
“You should take the approach that you’re wrong. Your goal is to be less wrong.”
Ellon Musk
This is what is called a growth mindset, an important skill that separates successful people from everyone else. When you have a growth mindset, you know you can learn anything if you put enough effort into it. And if you fail, you approach the problem from a different angle until you find a solution that works. You iterate until you get it right.
In Musk’s words:
“Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.”
Ellon Musk
#10 Develop a Wide Knowledge Base
According to his brother, Musk used to read 2 books a day at his early age. In other words: he devoured knowledge. This led to a wide understanding of many sciences, such as physics, math, engineering, and computer science.
One of my favorite quotes is about how he describes knowledge:
“It is important to view knowledge as sort of a semantic tree — make sure you understand the fundamental principles, ie the trunk and big branches, before you get into the leaves/details or there is nothing for them to hang on to.”
Even when running his companies, Musk constantly tries to learn from the people around him that have more knowledge on a specific topic. Here’s a passage from the book: “He would trap an engineer in the SpaceX factory and set to work grilling him about a type of valve or specialized material. “I thought at first that he was challenging me to see if I knew my stuff,” said Kevin Brogan, one of the early engineers. “Then I realized he was trying to learn things. He would quiz you until he learned ninety percent of what you know.”
Over the years, Musk developed T-shaped skills: a lot of knowledge in one particular field and a substantial amount of knowledge in many other disciplines and topics. This allowed him to be world-class in one field (business) but also use his broad knowledge to innovate, find different solutions, be more creative, and collaborate with experts in other fields effectively.
