The Secret of Being Elon Musk

Not everyone is a fan of Elon Musk, but you can’t can deny his many achievements. SpaceX, neurotechnology, tunnelling, hyper-loops, and of course, Tesla … And he’s not quite done, yet.

Not everyone is aware that Musk was born in South Africa and that his mother was Canadian. Thus, when Elon wanted to spread his wings and make his mark in North America, the straightest route for him lay through Saskatchewan, his maternal family’s ancestral home. So, Elon began writing letters to his cousins, and one of them invited him to come and live on their ranch not far from Swift Current. Musk took him up on the offer, and arrived in 1989.

The cousin reports that Elon was a willing and hard worker, doing tough chores around the farm. After leaving the ranch, he took up working as a lumberjack and in a sawmill. Years later, when asked to comment on Elon’s work ethic, the cousin responded, “Look, I work 70 hours a week, and he makes me look lazy.”

Few know that Elon Musk comes from a long line of adventurers and challengers. Some of them won the Cape to Tunis car race multiple times, some flew a single engine aircraft from South Africa to Australia and back, and the family would often disappear into the bush for a month at a time, living off the land. When they weren’t taking up one challenge, it was another.

It goes without saying that Elon’s parents instilled in him not only a driving work ethic, but an insatiable curiosity. They also taught him that education was important, but not everything.

Musk began his bachelor’s degree at Queen’s University in Ontario, then completed it at the University of Pennsylvania (physics and economics). Accepted at Stanford, he decided instead to go straight into business. Four years later he and his brother sold their company to Compaq for $307 million. Less than three years later he sold his next startup, PayPal, to eBay for $1.5 billion. And you know the rest.

There are three things that strike me about Elon Musk. First, he’s obviously very bright, but he is also very focused in the application of his thinking.

Second, he has a fierce work ethic. In reality, this is because he has so many exciting ideas and is driven to chase all the best ones. And usually successfully.

Third, he makes incisive, strategic decisions. He understood that he needed to be in North America to realize his dreams, and he did what he had to do. He understood that he needed an education in areas he had to know, but then he didn’t fall into the trap of learning more than he needed. Once he knew what he had to know, he wasted no more time in school and began to apply what he had learned.

Not everyone is an Elon Musk fan, but you can’t argue with how much he has accomplished, and how much he is likely yet to accomplish.

Brains, work ethic, and strategy. Hard to beat.