elonology.com

Tag: Elon Musk Advice

  • Reinvest In Your Own Success

    Self-Funded Ambition: Elon Musk’s Path of Personal Reinvestment.

    “I always invest my own money in the companies that I create. I don’t believe in the whole thing of just using other people’s money. I don’t think that’s right. I’m not going to ask other people to invest in something if I’m not prepared to do so myself.“ ~Elon Musk

    When Elon started Zip2 with his younger brother Kimbal he was so hard up for money they worked and slept in the office, because it was cheaper than an apartment, and they could not afford both.

    Elon and Kimbal only had one computer so during the day it was used as a server for Zip2, and Elon would code during the night, every night.

    Elon is one year older than Kimbal and “Team Musk” proved to be an awesome duo.

    Zip2 was acquired by Compaq for $307,000,000.  Elon received $22 million and Kimbal received $15 million for their shares of the company when Elon was 27 years-old and Kimbal was 26.


    After becoming a multi-millionaire Elon could have easily retired and lived the rest of his life relaxing on a beach…but laziness has never been Elon’s style.

    Elon took half of his money and put it into an online financial services company he launched, called X.com.

    This is why Elon became the largest shareholder when X.com merged with PayPal.  Elon brought the most to the table.

    In large part because of the $12,000,000 Elon reinvested into his success with PayPal they were able to offer $20 for each new user and this turbo-boosted new user growth and helped PayPal achieve 100,000 users within their first active month.

    After the new user bonus was removed people continued to join PayPal for many reasons because it was – and still is – a very robust online payment and financial solution.

    At first Elon and the PayPal team built out a large suite of solutions to solve all financial services desired by customers.  It turned out email payments intrigued investors the most so they focused on that innovation and the business grew at an amazing pace, often many thousands of new users per day.

    In October 2002 when eBay acquired PayPal the acquisition was for $1.5 Billion dollars and of this amount Elon received $180 Million.

    In 2020 PayPal Elon bought back his x.com domain, which was part of the acquisition deal with eBay.

    Of the $180,000,000 Elon had after selling PayPal he ended up investing all of that money into SpaceX, Tesla, and Solar City.

    “My proceeds from PayPal were $180m. I put $100m in SpaceX, $70m in Tesla and $10m in Solar City. I had to borrow money for rent.”

    And though it certainly seemed very risky at the time reinvesting everything in his success the effort has definitely paid off.  If Elon had chosen to quit rather than risk it all he would certainly not be one of the wealthiest humans alive today and the world would not be as awesome of a place.

    SpaceX has revolutionized the rocket industry by making rockets reusable.  They first achieved a successful landing and recovery of a first stage rocket booster in December 2015.

    In November 2016 Tesla acquired Solar City, which was then the largest provider of solar rooftop panels.

    Tesla has been revolutionizing the auto industry and energy market since Elon Musk became involved with the new company in 2004.

    Since then Tesla has won the highest safety honor from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.  

    With ceaseless innovation they have successfully shifted the entire car market towards electrification and emerged as the market leader.  In 2020 Tesla became the most valuable car company in the world.

    And on January 7th, 2021 Elon Musk surpassed Jeff Bezos and officially became the wealthiest man alive.

  • Focus on Signal Over Noise

    For years Elon and Tesla never spent any money on advertising.

    They focused instead on investing in R&D and design since these aspects of business help make the products as good as possible.

     “I ask myself: Will this activity result in a better product or service? If not, I stop those efforts.”

    There are grey areas like “Is a Tesla sign design an ad?” but ultimately the important takeaway is how money invested into design and manufacturing is a far better value than money burned on ads that do not significantly move a company forward.

    Elon has created Billions of dollars in growth by focusing his investments and then exercising control to accelerate growth.

    Here’s a quote from Elon talking with Inc. on the subject:

    “It’s OK to have your eggs in one basket as long as you control what happens to that basket.”

    Speaking of focus, a powerful statement Elon shared at the USC commencement address he gave is to:

    “Focus on signal over noise. A lot of companies get confused.  They spend money on things that don’t actually make the product better.

    For example at Tesla we’ve never spent any money on advertising.  We put all of the money into R&D and manufacturing and design to try to make the car as good as possible.

    And I think that’s the way to go.

    For any given company just keep thinking about are these efforts that people expending are they resulting in a better product or service, and if they are not, stop those efforts.“

    Focus on what actually moves the needle forward.  

    Focus on signal over noise.

  • Really Like What You Do

    Really Like What You Do

    Fueled by Interest: The Secret to Elon Musk’s 100-Hour Work Weeks.

    If I did not have a passion for Elon Musk and the businesses he magnetizes I would have had a much harder time writing so many posts about him.

    Since Elon is so fantastically fascinating to me I have found the energy to pour into these pages, and plenty of content from the interesting tips he’s shared.

    Here’s a timeless Elon quote that speaks to the importance of liking what you do:

    “Really liking what you do in whatever area that you get into, even if you’re the best of the best there’s always a chance of failure, so I think it’s important that you really like whatever you’re doing.  If you don’t like it, life is too short.

    If you like what you’re doing you think about it even when you’re not working, it’s something that your mind is drawn to, and if you don’t like it you just really can’t make it work I think.“

    When you really like what you do it enables you to find the energy to persist through the challenges that a growing business will undoubtedly face.

    The more competitive you decide to be, the greater your odds are for victory.

    Really liking what you do enables the obsession needed to ignore the hate and find great ways to dominate.

    Don’t spread yourself thin: Go all in on something you really like…

    Then obsess over it so you can optimize everything you do and dominate your market.

  • Elon’s Sleep Routine and Daily Rituals

    Elon’s Sleep Routine and Daily Rituals

    Caffeine, Showers, and Steak: Inside Elon’s Sleep and Daily Rituals

    In an interview with AutoBild and more recently (Dec 2025 / Katie Miller Podcast) Elon shed some light on what his morning routine and sleep habits are like.

    When asked what time he goes to be and wakes up Elon replied:

    “I wake up at about 7am.  But I go to bed late.  I usually go to bed around 1am or so.”

    For breakfast Elon said “I think it’s probably true that having a good breakfast is a good idea but usually I don’t have time for that so sometimes it’s made for me but probably half the time I don’t have breakfast.  I just have like coffee or something like that…

    I’m trying to cut down on sweet stuff and I think I probably should have an omelette and a coffee or something like that.  That seems like probably the right thing and sometimes I do have that.”

    These days (2025) he claims to have Steak and Eggs he said near the end of the Katie Miller podcast.

    In another interview Elon was asked how much sleep he gets and he said:

    “Sometimes not enough (sleep).  Sleep is really great because I find if I don’t get enough sleep then I’m quite grumpy. I think most people are that way…

    I found that I could get less sleep and sustain it but I would get less done because mental acuity would suffer.  So I found generally the right number for me is around six to six and a half hours on average per night.”

    Clearly Elon’s sleep schedule and morning habits align with his fierce work ethic.  He has slept on the factory floor at Tesla on a number of occasions, with iron filings in the air.  In another video he shared where he would sleep on the floor occasionally in a board room as the couch was too thin.

    There is power and productivity potential to be produced optimizing your sleep.

    To Paraphrase Ben Franklin: “Being early to bed and early to rise will help make you healthy, wealthy and wise.”

    Fewer hours lost to sleeping means more hours for productive work, and with more working hours you can accomplish far more than if you were less diligent about your sleep.

    Elon caught some flack for sharing the fact he sometimes takes Ambien to get to sleep but try to imagine how much he has on his mind.

    Elon on Joe Rogan described his brain like a never ending explosion of ideas so I don’t blame him for taking some medication when needed so he can optimize his sleep.

    Daily Rituals

    On a reddit AMA (Ask me Anything) the most upvoted question was: “What daily habit do you believe has the largest positive impact on your life?”

    Elon replied with a one word answer: “Showering.”

    Pretty simple answer but when you think about it the advice is strong.  A shower not only gets you feeling and smelling fresh for the day it also wakes you up and makes you ready for action.  

    Also, showering before bed can help you sleep.

    Clearly daily rituals are working well for Elon so if you are running lean on sleep like he does try showering first thing to wake your body up, alert your mind, and start your day off right.

    Elon values his time highly and manages it well.  “Time is the ultimate currency.” is one of my favorite Elon tweets. 

    When you put in twice as many working hours as someone else, you will have the opportunity to gain more momentum and a competitive advantage.  

    With more momentum you can get twice as much done as someone else, or even much more.

  • Relentlessly Improve Your Products

    Relentlessly Improve Your Products

    elon-musk-in-factory-grok

    Incremental Gains, Monumental Success.

    In a 2020 video interview with the Wall Street Journal Elon shares advice geared towards other CEO’s: 

    Elon recommends CEO’s “Spend less time with finance and in conference rooms and on powerpoint and spend more time trying to make your product as amazing as possible.” 

    “Make your product better.  That is what really matters.”

    Step 1: “Have You Tried?  Like really tried.”

    Step 2: “Try Harder”

    This reminds me of one of my favorite Elon quotes of all time, which he shared with a bunch of high schoolers who he did a Hack Club ask me anything video chat with.  Elon said: 

    “You’ve got to try.  Believe in yourself and try.  People can do way more than they think.”

    Be an absolute perfectionist about the product you produce or the service you provide.

    As I write this I just put down my phone and stopped a doom scroll on Christmas to shift my attention to Elonology.  Because I’m taking Elon’s advice to Try Harder and do what is necessary to make this book great.

    The company that invests the most effort and produces the most beneficial innovations is likely to win long term.

  • Create Win/Win Situations

    Create Win/Win Situations

    Collaborative Advantage: How to Build Partnerships Where Everyone Wins.

    Tesla and SpaceX are winning because they are creating the most innovative products with the most value built in.

    Because SpaceX developed reusable rockets they are able to achieve a cost advantage and offer their customers a better price for getting to orbit.

    With Tesla because the cars are electric they enable their customers to charge their vehicles “free” when they also invest in a solar or other renewable energy capture system.

    Again this offers customers cost savings and enables more room to capture profit and share savings.

    Elon explains his powerful business philosophy around this at “The House Always Wins” talk:

    “We believe in doing deals where both parties benefit, and, when there is an asymmetry or underperformance on our part…

    Our goal in doing so is to build long-term trust. 

    If people know that we will not take advantage of them and aspire to fairness, even at our expense, they are much more likely to want to work with us in the future.“

    Buying a car or solar system are two of the biggest purchases a person can make so trust is totally a factor at the individual consumer level.

    Long term success is more powerful than trying to make a short term quick buck:  Striving and succeeding in becoming the trusted brand in your industry will enable more sales to flow your way as more people trust you and your company.

    Long term trust is essential for repeated purchases over time and creating customers for life.

  • Set Aggressive Timelines and Goals

    Set Aggressive Timelines and Goals

    The Power of Aggressive Goals: Lessons from Elon Musk’s Playbook

    Although there have been a number of timelines at Tesla and SpaceX that have been pushed back, and pushed back again, no one can dispute that Tesla has risen to become the definitive dominating automotive giant in the world at an impressively fast speed.

    Aggressive outcomes are impossible without aggressive effort…

    So where does the aggressive effort come from?

    Firstly it comes from the awesomely important missions Elon is embarking on…

    And also it comes from the agressive effort because of the aggressive timelines Elon sets for company milestones, combined with many other optimizations.

    Because without an optimized work force Elon’s 90,000+ employees would not optimize and deliver their dominating results.

    By setting these aggressive timelines engineers and employees must stretch their ability to innovate and work long hours to the limit.

    In the Ted Talk “Elon Musk: A future worth getting excited about” TED’s Chris Anderson asks Elon about timelines and says:

    “And so in general, when people talk about Elon time, I mean it sounds like you can’t just have a general rule that if you predict that something will be done in six months, actually what we should imagine is it’s going to be a year ot it’s like two-x or three-x, it depends on the type of prediction…

    Is there an element that you actually deliberately make aggressive prediction timelines to drive ambitious people to be ambitious? Without that nothing gets done?“

    Elon replied: “Well, I generally believe, in terms of internal timelines, that we want to set the most aggressive timeline that we can.

    Because there’s sort of like a law of gaseous expansion where, for schedules, where whatever time you set, it’s not going to be less than that.  It’s very rare that it’ll be less than that…

    But as far as our predictions are concerned what tends to happen in the media is that they will report all the wrong ones and ignore all the right ones.”

    And Elon works hard to ensure all of the predictions he makes come true, sooner or later.

    Elon certainly seems like an example of how the harder you work the more momentum you can gain.

    Elon has led by example and has sometimes worked for so many hours straight when he did sleep he would sleep in the conference room, or even on the factory floor.

  • Stay Optimistic

    Stay Optimistic

    Elon has said: “It’s better to be optimistic and wrong than to be pessimistic and right.”

    Looking on the bright side of life is the most lit way to think.

    When you see the positive in everything more positive outcomes naturally flow.

    For example, when you see everything as a positive you will look for and find the lessons in the hardships.

    Pessimistic thinking leads to pessimistic outcomes.

    You reap what you sow: So sow the seeds of success with smart and optimistic thinking!

    Stay optimistic and work to make the positive future you envision real.

    As Peter Drucker says  “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”

    When Elon started SpaceX and Tesla he said the most likely outcome was probably failure…

    But ever the optimist Elon and his teams persisted and because of this optimism and persistence SpaceX and Tesla have weathered brutal storms and simultaneously risen to achieve success at the highest level.

  • Elon Musk’s 5-Step Algorithm: The Secret to Production Success

    Elon Musk’s 5-Step Algorithm: The Secret to Production Success

    Elon Musk’s Memorable Edge: Turn Complexity into Simple, Timeless Rules

    The more memorable your management style the more enduring it will be…

    And Elons management style is timeless.

    He recently tweeted “Time is the ultimate currency” and the truth he tweeted is enduring…

    As is his 2025 tweet about energy.

    This coming from the man who said (Jan 15th on Twitter) “The thing we call money is just an information system for labor allocation.”

    In our increasingly distracted world memorability is key.

    So if you can distill your management ethos into rhymes you should do so…

    “If it’s long it’s wrong, if it’s tight it’s right.” as Elon would say…

    Another effective way of managing is to distill your management strategies into a list…

    On a SpaceX tour with Everyday Astronaut (Tim Dodd) Elon shared a five part process for production success:

    1. Make your requirements less dumb
    2. Delete the part or process
    3. Simplify or optimize
    4. Accelerate cycle time
    5. Automate

    The supreme strategy seems to be: Simplify.

    Words are simply suppressed simplifications of reality after all…

    So leverage the memorability of your words using lists and rhymes if you are seeking to help yourself and your team make the most of your time.

  • Have a Sense of Urgency

    Have a Sense of Urgency

    Elon Musk on Urgency: Why Slow and Steady Loses the Race

    The saying “Patience is a virtue” is more harmful than it is beneficial in many situations.

    Urgency is often more of a virtue than patience.

    Without a sense of urgency important tasks will be patiently deferred indefinitely.

    Elon is a man who fully grasps the necessity of urgency for accelerating important advancements.

    Elon’s sense of urgency permeates many of his actions.

    Elon even eats fast and has said “If there was a way that I could not eat, so I could work more, I would not eat. I wish there was a way to get nutrients without sitting down for a meal.”

    Apparently when Elon goes to the washroom he even uses the urinal urgently. 

    Efficiency is an element of everything Elon does.

    elon-musk-driving-fast

    In a business context Elon’s sense of urgency manifests itself through the aggressive timelines he sets.  This is especially brilliant.  Aggressive timelines necessitate innovative thinking and an aggressive work ethic.

    The timelines Elon sets are aggressive to the point of borderline unrealistic.  He said his unrealistic expectations are a result of his optimism and it seems like they help his teams get more done in less time.  

    Elon and Tesla do occasionally end up pushing back timelines, but if you zoom out and look at what Tesla has accomplished in the past two decades it’s obvious the urgent timeline strategy is beneficial.

    Even if Tesla and SpaceX companies’ projects are late, they almost accomplish what they set out to do, and are making great progress over time.

    “I kind of say when I think it can occur, but then I’m typically optimistic about these things…It pretty much always happens, but not exactly on the timeframe.“

    Urgency is certainly an asset when it helps expedite positive results.

    Slow and steady will lose the race to urgent and steady every time.