Elon Musk’s USC Graduation Speech Unveils 5 Secrets to Success
Born in South Africa, Elon received his high school education there, then went to Canada for university, and then moved to America 2 years later. By selling many of his successful ventures such as PayPal and Zip2 in America, he obtained the necessary amount for his future goals. After that, Elon Musk turned to the field of engineering and founded companies such as Tesla Motors, SpaceX and SolarCity, which are very popular today.
After all he has done, it can be said that Elon Musk knows what needs to be done to be successful. In his speech for Marshall Business School (USC) in 2014, he emphasized five points that he thought contributed to success.
“I have about 5-6 minutes to say what I think is useful, I will do my best. I've boiled all of this down to three items, maybe four, and I think they're pretty important. You've heard some of them before, but they're worth emphasizing again.” (He finished with 5 items.)
Here are those 5 secrets:
Advice #1: Work Super Hard!
“First, depending on how well you want to do, you need to work, and especially if you're starting a company, you need to work very hard. So what does super many mean?
Instead of renting a house, my brother and I rented a small office for our first company and slept on the couch. We used the showers in the public areas of the state. There was only one computer in the company. So the website remained open during the day and I was coding the site at night; Seven days a week, anytime. I had a girlfriend at the time and she had to sleep in the office to be with me.
What I would say is, especially if you're starting a company. By simple math, if you work 100 hours where someone else works 50 hours, you will earn twice as much as other companies. ”
Advice #2: Attract Quality People.
“The other thing I would say is if you're creating a company or joining a company, the most important thing is to be around great people.
A company is a group of people brought together to create a product or service. Therefore, how talented and hard-working this group is and depending on their degree of cohesion will determine the success of the company. If you're starting a company, do your best to recruit great people. ”
Advice #3: Focus Only on the Product or Service.
“Focus on the signal rather than the noise. Many companies waste money on things that don't make the product better. For any company, keep asking yourself “are the efforts people put in resulting in a better product or service?” If not – stop these efforts. ”
Tip #4: Don't Follow Trends.
“Don't just follow trends. “The first principles method is a good way to figure out whether something really makes sense or what others are doing.”
Advice #5: Take Risks.
“The last thing I thought I would encourage you is now is the time to take risks. As you get older, your responsibilities increase, and when you have a family, you start taking risks not only for yourself but also for your family.
It becomes very difficult to do things that won't work. Now is the time to do it, before we have those obligations. So now I invite you to take a risk, to do something brave. Rest assured, you won't regret it. ”