elonology.com

Tag: Great Companies

  • Be a Market Leader

    Market Leadership: What It Is and How to Achieve It.

    By carving out a new market segment and being a market leader you are able to give yourself and your company a head start on the competition.

    As Elon’s friend (PayPal co-founder) Peter Thiel likes to say:

    “Competition is for losers.” 

    Being a leader means leading the way with products and services other companies have not yet executed on.

    When Tesla first got started none of the major automakers were building electric cars.  Now they all are.

    Another way Elon helped Tesla establish itself as a leader is by open sourcing all Tesla patents and creating the Tesla patent pledge.

    This leadership is irrevocably entrenched with the Patent Pledge on the Tesla website.

    Patent Pledge

    On June 12, 2014, Tesla announced that it will not initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use its technology.

    Tesla was created to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport, and this policy is intended to encourage the advancement of a common, rapidly-evolving platform for electric vehicles, thereby benefiting Tesla, other companies making electric vehicles, and the world. These guidelines provide further detail as to how we are implementing this policy.

    Tesla’s Pledge

    Tesla irrevocably pledges that it will not initiate a lawsuit against any party for infringing a Tesla Patent through activity relating to electric vehicles or related equipment for so long as such party is acting in good faith.

    The market leadership from Tesla and their core mission of accelerating the advent of sustainable transport.  

    The virtuous mission that guides Tesla moving forward has helped them to create cooperative agreements to create components for a number of their competitors. 

    Tesla encourages competition.
    Because of their market leadership now Tesla is both the clear leader of electric automobiles, and the leader of all automobile manufacturers in America.

  • Manage Your Expectations

    Manage Your Expectations

    In the documentary Elon Musk: The Real Life Ironman an early PayPal employee who worked with Elon in PR shared a story about his high expectations:

    “Elon expected a lot out of the people, but we all expected a lot of each other, that’s how you get it done.”

    “In the culture of startups the expectation is that everybody is working all the time.  You get there at 9 or 10 in the morning and not leave until 9 or 10 or maybe after that at night and Elon was definitely working until midnight every night…

    It was just what we did.  And it was exciting.  Rarely did anyone complain…”

    It’s important to keep in mind that the first person Elon had high expectations of was himself.  And if he was not working until midnight every night the people he worked with probably would have been less vigilant about holding themselves to such a high standard also.

    Elon fully acknowledged the improbability of starting SpaceX at the Living Legends of Aviation dinner:

    “In the beginning when I told people I was trying to create a rocket company, they thought I was crazy. That seemed like a very improbable thing.  And I agreed with them – I think it was improbable.  But sometimes the improbable happens.”

    Elon is living proof of the power possible when you go all in and work hard to make the improbable into reality.