“A maniacal sense of urgency is our operating principle.”
Elon Musk
Elon Musk is not your typical CEO.
He doesn’t have a corner office. There’s no executive dining room.
In fact, shortly after taking over Twitter, Elon slept on a couch in the company library. A typical meal: cereal out of a paper cup.
The excellent new book Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson tells us how Musk transformed Twitter, built Tesla and SpaceX, and more.
How Musk Runs Companies
Musk designs companies differently from most other CEO’s. He places engineering, design and production right next to each other, and puts himself in the middle of it all.
Musk designed SpaceX’s factory to get his people to cooperate the way he wanted:
“…Musk followed his philosophy that the design, engineering and manufacturing teams would all be clustered together. The people on the assembly line should be able to immediately collar a designer or engineer and say, ‘Why the f— did you make it this way?’”
Musk picks the people for those teams carefully. He looks more at personality than skills.
“’When hiring, look for people with the right attitude. Skills can be taught. Attitude changes require a brain transplant.’”
Shaking Things Up
Several times a year, Musk orders an all-out burst of activity at one of his companies. Then he camps out there to make sure that an ambitious goal, like getting out the Model 3, happens on time.
Musk also makes decisions quickly, which lets his companies move fast.
”Musk’s method, as it had been since the Falcon 1 rocket, was to iterate fast, take risks, be brutal, accept some flameouts, then try again.”
Musk is not afraid to be wrong. He doesn’t fear losing, and doubles down repeatedly in the face of risk.
Does it Take a Maniac to Build Something Great?
Elon Musk is a maniac. He’s said so himself.
For both his employees and his family, that can be hard to be around. Is this the price of success?
“Could you get the rockets to orbit or the transition to electric vehicles without accepting all aspects of him, hinged and unhinged?” Isaacson asks.
I don’t know. But what I do know is that we don’t have any examples of a relaxed, balanced person creating companies like Tesla.
How Sequoia Missed Tesla
Michael Moritz of Sequoia backed Elon at PayPal and had the opportunity to invest in Tesla early.
Musk took him for a ride in the company’s new roadster. Moritz was impressed, but thought Tesla was too risky.
“‘I really admired that ride, but we’re not going to compete against Toyota,’ he said. ‘It’s mission impossible.’”
Moritz passed.
What he got wrong was that Musk had very rare skills as a leader. Musk sold PayPal for $1.5 billion when he was just 31, netting Sequoia millions.
When you have a founder like that in front of you, you back him, no matter what.
Wrap-Up
Elon Musk drives his companies, and himself, hard. His goals, like reversing climate change and reaching Mars, are all that matter to him.
It’s fanatics like Musk that build great things. After reading this book, I’m looking for entrepreneurs with an audacious goal and the tenacity to get there.
What have you learned from Elon Musk? Leave a comment and let us know!
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More on tech:
Elon Musk (Part 1): Overcoming the Odds
Elon Musk (Part 2): Saving Tesla and SpaceX
The Hard Thing About Hard Things
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Photo: “Tesla and SpaceX CEO, and Solar City Chairman, Elon Musk, Sun Valley Idaho, Allen & Company Conference, July 2015” by Thomas Hawk is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.
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