Make People Wait (Timing is Everything)

The Power of Strategic Delays

Elon is notorious for running late.

When he was a kid his brother Kimbal would tell him the actual time was ahead of time so Elon would make it to the bus on time for school.

These days Elon claims to still have a problem with punctuality but people are definitely willing to wait.

Waiting builds anticipation…

The Tesla Plaid event was one of many great examples of this.  Rather than launching exactly on time the June 2021 event was scheduled for…

It started 21 minutes late.

The Tesla 2021 Q2 earning call (which blew everyone away with Tesla netting over a billion in profit) started a few minutes late as well.

The reason for these delays I believe is a strategic one.

Elon has said “Timing is everything” in the past and he certainly is not ignorant of the importance of time.

A smart sales strategy is to spend as much time with your prospect as possible.

Long form webinars often have a superior conversion rate to short webinars for high priced products, for example.

This is because people value their time and when more time is invested there is more pressure for people to take action so they can realize a positive ROI for their time spent.

Another example of this is the “sideways sales letter” product launch formula pioneered by Jeff Walker.

This formula has produced over a billion in launches and leverages anticipation built by a series of videos over a week or so launch sequence to maximize profit on launch day.

Make people wait and – so long as you don’t piss them off and make them leave – you get more power in the situation.

Anticipation amplifies enjoyment when the product/service waited for finally comes through.

How Musk’s Timing Works

• Timeboxing/Time-Blocking: He divides his day into tiny, fixed blocks (often 5 minutes) for specific tasks (engineering, emails, family).
• Task Batching: Grouping similar tasks together to handle them efficiently.
• Prioritization: Focusing on core engineering and manufacturing problems, spending most time there.
• Eliminating Decisions: Pre-planning prevents wasting time deciding what to do next. 

The Core Philosophy

• Work Expands to Fill Time: He uses strict blocks to prevent tasks from taking longer than they should (Parkinson’s Law).
• Feedback Loops: He constantly refines his schedule using feedback to improve efficiency.