What Can We Learn From The Genius Himself — Elon Musk

Why is Elon Musk so special?

Is it because he recently became the richest man in the world?

Probably.

Is it because he always interacts with his fanbase?

Maybe.

Is it because he made people rich by promoting the DOGE coin?

That's a good guess.

Is it because he launches rockets that can land themselves?

That's also cool, but.

His goals are bigger than that.

Unlike other billionaires, whose objectives are to make more money and become more powerful, Elon has chosen to make a positive impact on humanity, by using the latter 2 for the good.

He is trying to establish a human colony on Mars.

Not everyone considers this useful. People are arguing that planet Earth should be our main concern. We should be dealing with the problems of today's world like climate change, poverty, illnesses, wars and so on.

It doesn't really matter.

That's why Elon has made his own money and established a great reputation, to do whatever he desires.

This is not egotistic.

By taking on such a huge goal, humanity will invent, discover and outperform themselves in lots of crucial spheres. This will benefit us not only on the way to Mars but also here, at home.

At the end of the day, it is a better investment than wasting money on the military.

In 2021 alone, the US spent 801 billion dollars.

That's why I decided to read Elon's biography, written by Ashlee Vance. Even though, it was published in 2015 before he became world known, I wanted to understand how this genius came along.

What made him so successful?

What lessons I could learn from him?

Here are my favourite insights from his biography -

1) Unstoppable Vision

Spoiler alert: Elon Musk is Iron Man.

You have probably heard that before or come across this thought.

The only thing he lacks is Tony’s assistant J.A.R.V.I.S.

Unlike the majority of people, Elon is not afraid to dream. Moreover, he is slowly accomplishing his childhood dreams.

Elon had a pretty rough childhood. He was the “weird kid” at school that everyone bullied. He was also having a hard time at home because of his father. He spent his childhood in South Africa, which at that time was a dangerous place to be.

We slowly start to understand why Elon grew up liking the risk-taking factor.

However, this was only a part of the formula.

In order to escape from his daily struggles, Elon was hiding in the world of books.

Sci-fi books.

They helped him image technologies, inventions and goals that could improve people’s lives, and humanity.

Now we start to see the whole pattern. Risk-taking factor + sci-fi books + dreaming big.

That’s where he got the unstoppable vision.

Elon Musk is the same kid, with the same ambitions that have never stopped dreaming.

2) Lots of learning

Dreaming is super important.

It is our daily drive that keeps us fired up to continue our journey.

It is the answer to all the whys.

It is our greatest motivation.

What differentiates Elon Musk from others, is the fact that he is constantly learning.

Musk was a smart kid from the start.

• As I have mentioned, he fell in love with reading. There were weekends when he could read 2 books a day.
• At school he was getting good grades in subjects he found important, if not, he would do enough to get a pass.
• He also learned to code from a young age, programming video games that were published in local newspapers.

Later on, Musk didn’t stop learning. His interest became even bigger when he came to Canada, studying at Queen’s University, and later on to the US, where he was learning economics and physics.

His secret was to always learn and stay as sharp as possible.

3) Working your as* off

Elon is always working.

In one of his interviews, Elon was asked how to become successful. He answered that you should work 80 to 100 hours a week. You will achieve 2–3 times more than others.

With his first start-up Zip2, he and his brother rented an office where they would work and sleep there, non-stop.

To this day, Elon is sometimes practising the same daily regime.

Only now he doesn’t work and sleep in an office but in his factories.

Elon Musk is the same hustler innovator as Steve Jobs was.

They both pushed the idea of the hustle culture. Their argument was, and is, that people at their companies are working in order to make the world a better place.

You have to work hard in order to achieve your goals.

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Thanks for reading! We are so fortunate to live in a world together with Elon Musk.

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