Elon Musk’s work ethic is fierce.
This is Elon’s advice for a young Entrepreneur wanting to achieve success:
“Work like hell. I mean you just have to put in 80 to 100 hour weeks every week. [This] improves the odds of success. If other people are putting in 40 hour work weeks and you’re putting in 100 hour work weeks, then even if you’re doing the same thing you know that… you will achieve in 4 months what it takes them a year to achieve.”~Elon Musk
Elon also mentioned a similar point during his 2012 USC Commencement Address. He said:
“You need to work super hard. So what does super hard mean?
Well, when my brother and I were starting our first company, instead of getting an apartment, we just rented a small office and we slept on the couch and we showered in the YMCA.
We’re so hard up that we had just one computer.
So the website was up during the day, and I was coding at night.
7 days a week, all the time.
And I, sort of briefly had a girlfriend in that period and in order to be with me, she had to sleep in the office.
So, work hard, like, every waking hour…
Particularly if you’re starting a company.”
Working every waking hour is not for everyone – but it is for people who want to achieve at the highest level.
During vital growth phases of SpaceX and Tesla, Elon worked as many as 120 hours per week and would sleep in the conference room or even on the factory floor.
These days he tends to work 80-90 hours per week, which is still more than twice the amount of someone who works 40 hours per week.
In a PandoMonthly fireside chat Elon explains how companies succeed:
“You only build value in a company if you’re doing hard work to solve tough problems. That’s why companies are valuable.”
If you are thinking about starting a company realize the more hours you put towards your business the more your business will grow. The closer you get to Elon’s level of working every waking hour the greater your odds of success will be.
