elonology.com

Tag: Elon Musk Team Building

  • 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.

  • Vertically Integrate

    Vertically Integrate

    Vertical integration is the combination in one company of two or more stages of production normally operated by separate companies.

    After multiple trips to Russia where more vodka was involved than strategy…

    Elon did the math and realized the raw cost of material components of a rocket could make rockets much more affordable if vertical integration was involved.

    This means the raw materials for a rocket coming in one side…

    And a fully finished rocket coming out the other.

    Tesla taps into the power of vertical integration also…

    In fact Tesla is the most vertically integrated auto maker on earth…

    And with this vertical integration there are both cost savings and efficiency improvements.

    There are also supply chain reliability reasons for integrating vertically.

    Because the less you rely on others for your production line…

    The more reliable the entire process will flow.

    And the most efficient and reliable company often equates with the best…

    Manufacturing is hard…so many entrepreneurs shy away from it.

    But Elon certainly has not.

    Part of the reason is because he feels manufacturing is an area of business that deserves more respect and is ripe for innovation: 

    “There’s more potential for innovation in manufacturing than there is in the design of a car – by a long shot…

    We believe in manufacturing and we believe a company that values manufacturing as highly as we do is going to attract the best minds in manufacturing.” (Q1 2016 earnings call)
    Certainly focusing on the alien dreadnought “machine that builds the machine” has enabled Tesla to crank out plenty of next level machines, with no sign of slowing down.

    Tesla just announced they have produced 9 million vehicles worldwide. And SpaceX is almost at 600 successful missions to space. Congrats to Elon and his teams!

    9-million-vehicles-produced-by-tesla
  • Surround Yourself With Great Friends

    Surround Yourself With Great Friends

    You Are the Company You Keep: Elon Musk’s Path to Billion-Dollar Success

    Certainly after multiple decades thriving in silicon valley Elon has amassed a number of powerful friends.

    Elon’s friends include Richard Branson, Peter Thiel (the first investor in Facebook), Chad Hurley (YouTube co-founder), Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn Founder), Chamath (Facebook & Social Capital) and the list goes on.

    You are the company you keep is an idiom that has stood the test of time, and it certainly seems to hold true for Elon as well.

    The great friends Elon has have helped him achieve great business success.  When Tesla was on the verge of bankruptcy Elon was able to convince Larry Page to get Google to agree to buy Tesla…

    Unfortunately for Larry the deal never went through…

    On the last hour of the last day Elon had to secure financing, on Christmas Eve 2008, Elon was able to get the financing needed to keep Tesla alive.  So the Google acquisition of Tesla did not go through.

    Surrounding yourself with powerful people is a great way to brainstorm brilliant ideas and help each other realize powerful results.

    For better or worse the people you surround yourself with will influence you.  So to maximize the positive effects from your friendships, surround yourself with the best people possible and be ruthless about cutting out and unfriending anyone who proves to be negative.

    Better to have fewer friends than to have negative friends.

  • Work With Quality Investors

    Work With Quality Investors

    If Tesla focused on quantity of investors over quality they might not be in business today.

    The concept of quality is so important to the success of a business, especially in the early phases…

    And quality over quantity extends to every element of the business, including the venture capitalists and investors it works with.

    In a PandoMonthly interview Elon elaborates:

    “If you have a choice of a lower valuation with someone you really like or a higher valuation with someone you have a question mark about, take the lower valuation.  

    It’s better to have a higher quality venture capitalist who you think would be great to work with than to get a higher valuation with someone where there’s even a question mark, really.”

    Quality matters.  

    Strive for quality people as investors and in all aspects of your life and your odds of living a quality life increase.

  • Beyond Money: How Noble Missions Turn Profit into More Power (Elon Musk’s Way)

    Beyond Money: How Noble Missions Turn Profit into More Power (Elon Musk’s Way)

    Elon Musk on Profit: It’s Proof You’re Adding Real Value

    In his Kahn academy interview with Sal Kahn Elon said:

    “There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with profit, in fact profit just means that people are paying you more for whatever you are doing than you are spending to create it…

    And that’s a good thing.  If that’s not the case then you would be out of business and rightfully so because you’re not adding enough value.”

    So add more value.  Stack on bonuses.  Strengthen your offer by finding ways to improve your product.

    Elon explains by investing in his own companies it becomes easier to ask others to do the same.

    In a Milken Institute Interview Elon was asked: “You put a lot of your eggs in one basket.  Would you advise entrepreneurs to roll the bones quite the way you did?”

    Elon: “Yeah absolutely! I think it’s worth investing your own capital in what you do.  I don’t believe in the sort of other people’s money thing…

    I think if you’re not willing to put your own assets at stake then you shouldn’t ask other people to do that.”

    Elon is all in with having skin in the game.

    By investing more of his own money into growing his businesses Elon has more invested, and more reasons to stay focused on fully optimizing the businesses he is invested in.

    When you are willing to invest everything into your businesses you have every reason to make it work.

    Find a noble reason beyond profit to make your business work – and this will likely boost your profitability.

    SpaceX is currently the most profitable rocket company but at one point they had never sent a rocket to orbit and were running deep in the red.

    But they pulled through and made it to orbit with the fourth launch!

    So why take the risk? Elon explains his bigger than money motive:

    “Now is the first time in the history of Earth the windows has opened where it is possible for us to extend life to another planet…the wise move is to make life multiplanetary while we can.” (AGU)

    It’s not about the odds of success as much as it is about the importance of the mission: “If something is important enough, then you should do it anyway.”

    Having a super human mission is the superhuman effort realized to help achieve it.

  • Have a Great Team Around You

    Have a Great Team Around You

    Elon has personally been involved in the interviews of the first 3,000 SpaceX employees.  Certainly he’s learned a thing or two in the process.

    At the World Government Summit Elon was asked “How do you choose your team?”

    Elon replied: “I suppose honestly it tends to be gut feel more than anything else…

    So when I interview somebody my interview questions are always the same.  I say: ‘Tell me the story of your life’

    And the decisions you made along the way and why you made them. 

    Also: ‘Tell me about some of the most difficult problems you worked on and how you solved them’ and that question I think is very important because the people that really solved the problem they know exactly how they solved it.

    They know the little details.  And the people who pretended to know how to solve the problem can maybe go one level and then they get stuck.”

    Nonetheless small and strong is often superior to large and clunky.

    Or as Elon would say: “A small group of very technically strong people will always beat a large group of moderately strong people.”

    ~Fast Company, Feb 1st 2005

  • 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.

  • Surround Yourself With Great People

    A Company is a group of people working together to create a product or service.

    In his commencement speech at USC Elon Musk explained that if you are creating or joining a company the most important thing is to attract great people.

    “Join a group that is amazing that you really respect or if you are building a company you’ve got to gather great people.”

    For a company to be great it must be made up of great people.

    With Tesla Elon says a College degree – or even high school – is not needed.

    What is needed is a track record of exceptional results.  Elon is smart enough to know exceptional people do not always have college degrees.

    In the past I started and grew an inspirational quotes website until we were acquired…

    The most enduring and persistent quote that continually resurfaced was from Jim Rohn:

    “You’re the average of the five people spend the most time with.”

    Or in other words: You are the company you keep.

    So keep great company.

    Surround yourself with great people.

    And give the hard working people on your teams credit when credit is due.  

    In conversation with Bill Gates Elon said: 

    “Most of the time – I get way too much credit or attention for what I do.  I’m just the visible element.  But the reason those companies are successful is because we have extremely talented people at all levels that are making it happen.”

    Gotta love Elon’s humility.

    Because of Elon’s willingness to share the credit undoubtedly his employees are willing to work harder than if Elon selfishly claimed the success was all him – even though it’s clear Elon and his involvement is a massively positive vector for success.

    Elon’s powerful friends and terrific teams helped make it happen.

  • Attract Great People

    Attract Great People

    From Elon’s USC Commencement speech he described the importance of hiring smart and said:

    “If you are forming a company the most important thing is to attract great people.

    All a company is, is a group of people that are gathered together to create a product or service.

    So depending on how talented and hard working that group is and the degree to which they are focused cohesively in a good direction that will determine the success of the company.

    So do everything you can to gather great people if you’re creating a company.“

    How can you tell if someone is great?

    There are many different ways talent and greatness are expressed and the types of talent you may need will vary.

    One trait Elon looks for when hiring new people is to look for problem solvers and evidence of exceptional ability.

    When Elon interviews someone he asks about the problems the interviewee worked on:

    “And how they solved them…if someone was really the person that solved it they’ll be able to answer multiple levels.

    They’ll be able to go down to the brass tacks and if they were not they’ll get stuck.  

    And then you can say oh this person was not really the person who solved it because anyone who struggled hard with a problem never forgets it.“

    Problem solvers are great people and the people who solve the greatest problems are definitely deserving of their greatness.

  • What’s The Worst That Could Happen?

    What’s The Worst That Could Happen?

    From Oranges to Starships: A Strategy From Elon’s Startup

    When Elon was first starting out in business in the USA, he lived on $1 per day to alleviate some of the financial worry that comes with having a new business that is in the pre-profitability stage.

    He ate a lot of oranges and hot dogs during those days, he claims.

     “I figured if I could live off a dollar a day then, at least from a food stand point, it’s pretty easy to earn $30 a month.”

    Elon didn’t do it because he was poor. He did it to see if he had what it takes to lead life as an entrepreneur.

    Since he was successful with this experiment he knew that money wouldn’t be an issue if he could keep his budget tight.

    By experimenting with what it actually felt to be poor Elon realized he could do it if he had to.

    And this helped give him extra confidence so he could go all in and win.

    Note about the pic: Elon and Kanye are friends. Ye posted “When you go to your boys house and you’re both wearing orange.“

    Fun Fact: Elon owned etymology.com also features the Orange emoji.

    Alleviate Stress and Focus on Success

    By not having to worry about the cost of food Elon was able to pour more energy into his business without the burden of stress.

    In an interview with Engineering dot com Elon said:

    “It’s relatively easy to start a company, you just need to get a few like minded people with you and then focus on creating a prototype,a compelling prototype, as soon as possible…

    And then there’s a strong venture capital industry in this country that will give you funding to take things to the next level and that’s all there is to it…

    You may or may not succeed but sometimes I think people fear starting a company too much. You have to say really what’s the worst that could go wrong?

    You’re not going to starve to death, you’re not going to die of exposure, what’s the worst that could go wrong?“

    Business is not usually anywhere as risky as jumping out of a plane.

    Having a budget and tracking your inflow and outflow of capital will help you eliminate potential financial stressors and gain greater clarity around the important tasks you need to complete for your business to succeed.

    By evaluating the worst that could go wrong you can plan for the worst and find motivation to do the hard work needed to help ensure your outcome is positive.