Elon Musk

“You don’t get to where Elon is now by always being a nice guy,

The first obvious assumption would be that other people will behave like you.

‘Well, how would this sound to them, knowing what they know?’”

What Musk would not tolerate were excuses or the lack of a

What Musk would not tolerate were excuses or the lack of a clear plan of attack.

hitting his standards. “He would often say, ‘The longer you wait to fire someone the longer it has been since you should have fired them,’” Spikes said.

Musk could be equally brisk with employees who were not hitting his standards. “He would often say, ‘The longer you wait to fire someone the longer it has been since you should have fired them,’” Spikes said.

Rarely did Tesla get hung up overanalyzing a situation. The company would pick a plan of attack, and when it failed at something, it failed fast and then tried a new approach.

“You’re standing on the surface of the Earth. You walk one mile south, one mile west, and one mile north. You end up exactly where you started. Where are you?”

the answer than about how they describe the problem and their approach to solving it.

He tends to care less about whether or not the person gets the answer than about how they describe the problem and their approach to solving it.

assuming everything goes right, and then accelerate it by assuming that everyone can work harder.” Musk has been pilloried

He will pick the most aggressive time schedule imaginable assuming everything goes right, and then accelerate it by assuming that everyone can work harder.”

certainly don’t try to set impossible goals. I think impossible goals are demotivating. You don’t want to tell people to go through a wall by banging their head against it. I don’t ever set intentionally impossible goals. But I’ve certainly always been optimistic on time frames. I’m trying to recalibrate to be a little more realistic.

Musk guides his engineers into taking ownership of their own delivery dates. “He doesn’t say, ‘You have to do this by Friday at two P.M.,’” Brogan said. “He says, ‘I need the impossible done by Friday at two P.M. Can you do it?’ Then, when you say yes, you are not working hard because he told you to. You’re working hard for yourself. It’s a distinction you can feel. You have signed up to do your own work.”

SpaceX has maximized the power of the individual. One person putting in a sixteen-hour day ends up being much more effective than two people working eight-hour days together. The individual doesn’t have to hold meetings, reach a consensus, or bring other people up to speed on a project.

One of my favorite things about Elon is his ability to make

One of my favorite things about Elon is

One of my favorite things about Elon is his ability to make enormous decisions very quickly.

Decisions were made quickly during weekly meetings, and the entire company bought into them. “It was amazing how fast people would adapt to what came out of those meetings,” Watson said. “The entire ship could turn ninety degrees instantly.