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  • Be Willing to Sacrifice

    Be Willing to Sacrifice

    “If you don’t sacrifice for what you want, what you want will be the sacrifice.” ~Elon Musk

    Tesla faced a severe threat of death during the Model Three production round.  

    “The company was bleeding money like crazy and if we didn’t solve these problems in a very short period of time we would die.

    It was extremely difficult to solve them…

    So I started working seven days a week, sleeping in the factory.  I worked in the paint shop, general assembly, body shop…

    Interviewer: Do you ever worry about yourself imploding because it’s too much?

    Elon: “Yeah, absolutely.  Noone should put this many hours into work.  This is not good.  They should not do this.  This is very painful…

    It hurts my brain and my heart.  It hurts.  This is not recommended for anyone.  I just did it because if I didn’t there was a good chance Tesla would die.”

    Elon is committed to the success of Tesla and SpaceX above all else it seems, and this gives him a competitive edge.

    While Elons competitors are spending time with their families, watching TV, or spending time in one of a million other ways, Elon is grinding.  And the grind creates greatness.

    Sometimes getting the win means losing out and sacrificing other areas of your life.

    If you choose to work 90 hours a week your personal life will suffer.

    And the harder you try to win the more sacrifices you will need to make in other areas of life.

    Priorities are everything.  Priorities dictate how you allocate your time.

    The thing about priorities is they are a continuum…so you need to remind yourself on a regular basis what matters to you.  Reminders are powerful.

    This is why every single day you should write down your priorities.

    Winners win because winners take the actions needed to win.
    So figure out what you need to do…

    Write it down…

    And do it!

  • Elon Musk’s Out of This World Ambition

    Elon Musk’s Out of This World Ambition

    Beyond Earth: Elon Musk’s Bold Vision for Humanity’s Future.

    Elon’s mission to colonize Mars is amazingly ambitious and incredibly important.

    Making human life multi-planetary by colonizing Mars is much more than a business decision for Musk, even though SpaceX is a thriving business.

    The mission of SpaceX is focused on the future of humanity:

    “I think it’s important that humanity become a multi-planet species. I think most people would agree that a future where we are a spacefaring civilization is inspiring and exciting compared with one where we are forever confined to Earth until some eventual extinction event. That’s really why I started SpaceX.”

    In Ashlee Vance’s biography on Musk, Elon reveals that he wishes to establish a Mars colony by 2040, with a population of 80,000.

    He’s well on his way.

    Elon Musk’s companies employ many tens of thousands, with: 

    • Neuralink (hundreds),
    • Tesla leading (around 120k-140k employees, fluctuating), followed by 
    • SpaceX (13,000+), 
    • X/Twitter (significantly reduced, aiming for ~100), 
    • xAI (1,200+),
    • The Boring Company (~200)

    Totaling well over 100,000 individuals across his major ventures, with Tesla being the largest employer. (December 2025)

    It’s not just the quantity of these teams that matters, it’s the quality. Elon has been able to assemble strong engineering talent partially because his goal is the biggest goal in the world. And big goals help attract skilled talent.

    How many will a Mars settlement take?

    Likely this will be determined by how well humanoid robots are able to go there and make the living buildings we will need to survive.

    A Moon Base alpha is also in the cards. The future is getting more exciting fast.

    Mars will be determined by the strength of the technology we amass and the Starships leaving Earth with a blast.

  • Boldly Take Risks (Especially When You’re Young)

    Boldly Take Risks (Especially When You’re Young)

    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.