Tesla was founded in the year 2003, by a group of engineers who wanted to prove that people didn’t have to settle down to drive an electric- Tesla made everyone believe that electric cars can be better, quicker, and more fun to drive than gasoline cars. Tesla not just builds electric vehicles but also infinitely scalable clean energy generation and storage products. Tesla believes the sooner the world stops relying on fossil fuels and leans more towards a zero-emissions future, the better. Elon Musk is the co-founder, CEO, and product architect. There’s nothing he can’t do he’s the CEO for companies and went down to become the founder of three more.
Musk seems to be everywhere, pushing all kinds of futuristic ideas technologies. He once said in an interview he won’t be totally happy if we’ve escaped the Earth and colonized Mars. He’s got a track order and money of his own on the line. Elon’s multiple ventures benefit his companies big time through cross-learning. Being deeply involved in multiple companies means he is continuously fueling cross learnings between ventures at the highest level. He does this almost on a daily basis with the ventures he has co-founded. But there are other benefits.
He’s undoubtedly more connected by running several ventures. So when it comes to fund-raising, for example, he might have just completed a funding round for Tesla, and then, 3 months later, he calls up the same investment bankers for SpaceX who will be dealing with investors already comfortable with Elon. And his own brand, which comes about from having several ventures, brings a lot to the table.
So what makes Elon Musk different from other CEOs?
Making money is no longer his primary goal. He’s worth $12.1bn, but his interests lie in transformative business and fundamentally changing humanity’s future. “Going from PayPal, I thought: ‘Well, what are some of the other problems that are likely to most affect the future of humanity?’ Not from the perspective, ‘what’s the best way to make money?’”
But he’s extremely aware that failure is a serious possibility. “If something’s important enough, you should try. Even if the probable outcome is a failure,” is one of his most enduring quotations. To that end, he even sees failure as inevitable: “If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.”
Musk believes that hard work is essential to combat the high chance of failure. On several occasions, he’s claimed to have worked 80 to 100-hour weeks. “If other people are putting in 40-hour workweeks, and you’re putting in 100-hour workweeks, even if you’re doing the same thing… you’ll achieve in four months what it takes them a year to achieve,”
Practice integrity. To develop his electric car company known as Tesla, Elon Musk borrowed heavily from the U.S. government. The company has become a huge success and is selling thousands of units. After making a good revenue, Elon paid back his $400 million loans. He said that he was grateful to the Department of Energy and all stakeholders who loaned him the money. He paid them back as soon as he could. In this way, he conducted honest business and we can learn to do the same from him.
Focus on the most important activity in your enterprise. Elon Musk, Warren Buffet, and Mark Zuckerberg all have two things in common. They run billion-dollar companies and they understand the power of focus. They agree that it is better to focus your effort on making a product better instead of focusing your effort on how to sell it to the market. Elon specifically indicates that he would rather under-market a revolutionary product than promoting a mediocre one. Apply this lesson in your life and it can increase the quality of your products or services.
Think Big. Looking at Elon’s history of innovation, the billionaire’s ideas don’t just create a single product, they have a lasting impact on the industry. PayPal changed the financial industry by digitizing money transfers and making it easy for people around the world to send and receive money online. His SpaceX program has a lasting impact on space travel. He wants to make commercial space travel possible. Elon Musk thinks big and through his exploits, he teaches us how to do it too.
The creativity of CEOs can lead their organization more meaningful and can achieve their long-term objective and also can improve the organization standard. Elon Musk is definitely the true gangster in the business world, leading a great legacy forward. His companies and employees have a great and unique leader who guides them in the most different and successful ways.
