During the speech Elon gave on June 15th, 2012 he shared the following advice with the young graduating class:
“Now is the time to take risks.
You don’t have kids, and your obligations are limited, but as you get older your obligations increase.
Once you have a family you start taking risks not just for yourself but for your family as well. It gets much harder to do things that might not work out.
So now is the time to do that, before you have those obligations. So I would encourage you to take risks now, to do something bold, you won’t regret it.”
The older you get the riskier risks become because your biological clock is ticking.
So while you are still full of youthful vigor you should do something bold. Be bold before you grow old or suffer the regret from never doing what you could have done.
It takes hard work and dedication, which become harder with mounting family obligations.
If you do not have children yet and are considering starting a business I recommend you start your business sooner than later.
Fewer obligations mean a greater ability to invest your time into creating success for your business, projects and brand.
Elon shared his thoughts on risk and innovation at an ISSRDC talk:
“I don’t really like risk for risks sake, and I do think that a lot of things are risky with a low chance of success, but if you want to try to come up with an innovative breakthrough that’s going to be how it is.
Anything that is significantly innovative is going to come with a significant risk of failure.”
Yes, significant innovations come with significant risks. However they also come with significant rewards if you can achieve them.
Elon recommends taking risks when you are still young as obligations only increase over time.
“Once you have a family it gets much harder to do things that might not work out.”
It’s worth keeping in mind that Elon started SpaceX and Tesla with a young family so his family obligations have certainly not slowed him down.
With greater risks, such as those needed to carve out a new niche, comes the potential for far greater rewards. However many people are not willing to sacrifice the heroic way Elon does so you must sacrifice while you are young.
Musk poured so much of his money into SpaceX and Tesla that he had to borrow money from friends to cover his living expenses.
However the risk of pouring his money into his companies has paid off.
Today SpaceX and Tesla are thriving and Elon is many billion dollars wealthier than he was previously. Deservedly so due to the massive amount of value he has added to the world.
The harder you work the more you can mitigate your risk and increase your odds of achieving your goals.
So work hard, innovate often, and do your best to take bold action early to ensure your products and/or services are awesome.
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