Seek the Truth: Elon Musk’s Tips for Handling Constructive Criticism
One success tip that many people likely avoid but contains plenty of power is: Seeking out constructive criticism.
Noone likes hearing what they are potentially doing wrong but by seeking out this information from people you trust you gain valuable insight that you may be able to use to make improvements.
“I think it’s important for people to pay close attention to negative feedback and rather than ignore negative feedback, you have to listen to it carefully.
Ignore it if the underlying reason for the negative feedback doesn’t make sense but otherwise, people should adjust their behavior.
I’m not perfect at it, for sure, but I do think it’s really important to solicit negative feedback, particularly from people who have your best interest in mind.“
Truth can be harsh but truth is often powerful. By seeking the harshest and hardest truths and learning from them you will ultimately become stronger.
In a Milken Institute interview with his brother Kimbal, Elon was asked: “What are the key traits, skills, and circumstances that have enabled you to be so successful?”
Elon Replied: Being tenacious, and being super focused on the truth is extremely important and looking for feedback from all sources.
The more positive feedback you can generate the better your product will be.
Be willing to hear the hard truth…
Then be willing to take the hard actions needed to fix your problems fast.
And realize the feedback loop is a two way street:
“Having that strong bidirectional feedback loop between engineering and production is really helpful for making the car better, finding efficiencies and lowering the cost.”
An example of this is the machine learning system Tesla has been installing into all vehicles since October 2016. From that point on new vehicles come with the necessary sensors and computing hardware, known as hardware version 2 (HW2), which provide feedback for future Full Self-Driving. This automated feedback data gives Tesla a distinct advantage over competitors.
Barriers to feedback are barriers to innovation.
The better your system for turning feedback into innovation is the better off you and your business will be.
Ignore The Competition
When speaking at the InvestHK conference Elon said:
“We don’t think too much about what competitors are doing because I think it’s important to be just focused on making the best possible products…
It’s sort of analogous to what they say about you if you’re in a canoe if you’re in a race. They say don’t worry about what the other runners are doing, just run.“
Elon does not suggest ignoring competition altogether. Competition can inspire innovation but obsessing over the competition distracts from obsessing over your own business.
So be aware of your competition but don’t let it distract you from your main goal: Making your business and your life as awesome as possible.
The grass will be greener on your side when you focus more energy on making your grass green and less time worrying about your neighbors grass.