Elon Musk – Ten Rules for Success

Elon Musk is worth over $11bn and here are his ten rules for success:

Never give up
“I’d have to be dead or completely incapacitated to give up.”

Really like what you do
“It’s really important to like what you do if you don’t like it, life is too short.”

Don’t listen to the littleman
“We’re doing these things which seem unlikely to succeed and we’ve been fortunate that at least thus far they have succeeded.”

Take a risk
“Take risks now and do something bold, you won’t regret it.”

Do something important
“If something is important enough you should try even if the probable outcome is failure.”

Focus on signal over noise
“Focus on signal over noise…are these efforts that people are undergoing resulting in a better product or service? If they’re not, stop those efforts.”

Look for problem solvers
“When interviewing somebody to work in a company, ask them ‘tell me about the problems you worked on and how did you solve them’ and if someone was really the person who solved the problems they’d be able to answer at multiple levels and if they weren’t they’d get stuck.”

Attract great people
“All a company is, is a group of people that create a problem or service and so dependent on how talented or hard working that group is and the degree to which they are focused cohesively in a good direction that will determine the success of a company.”

Have a great product
“You’re always going to buy the trusted brand unless there’s a big difference. A lot of times an entrepreneur will come up with something that is just slightly better, and it can’t just be slightly better, it’s got to be a lot better.”

Work super hard
“If you do the simple math, if somebody else is working 50 hours and you are working 100, you’ll get twice as much done in the course of a year as the other company.”