to sleep and although I’d be awake for
hours and I could sustain it I would get
less done because my mental acuity would
be affected a challenge for
entrepreneurs is to say well what’s the
difference between really believing in
new ideals and sticking sticking to them
versus pursuing some unrealistic dream
that doesn’t actually have merit I think
a lot of people think I must spend a lot
of time with media or on business II
things but actually almost almost all my
time like 80% of it is spent on
engineering design what’s that belief
nation it’s Evan my one word is believe
and I believe in you I believe you have
an amazing gift inside you that I want
to see explode out onto the world now I
started the meant to me series to try to
hang around people who’ve done a lot
more than us and hopefully by spending a
little more time with them hopefully
some of their beliefs their mindset
their thoughts have some seep into us to
help us become the best version of
ourselves so today we’re gonna learn
from one of the best Elon Musk and how
he lives his crazy schedule mentor me
okay so you’re running you’re CEO of two
companies you’re chairman of SolarCity
talk about time management how on earth
do you do this well you get any sleep
oh yeah sometimes not enough so you guys
it’s really great because because if you
find if I don’t get enough sleep then
I’m I’m quite grumpy I mean obviously I
think most people that way and and and
also I can try to sort of figure out
what’s the right amount of sleep because
I I thought I could have though I could
drop below a certain threshold of sleep
and although I’d be awake more hours and
I could sustain it I would get less done
because my mental acuity would be
affected so I found generally the right
number for me is around six to six and a
half hours on average per night that’s
not too bad yeah and any other tips on
average that any other tips on just
managing to run two companies
simultaneously I mean do you do you find
I mean I know you’re up here on Monday
Tuesday is it all Tesla when you’re up
in Silicon Valley and all SpaceX
Wednesday Thursday it’s having a sort of
service with us having a smartphone is
incredibly helpful because that means
you can do email during interstitial
periods like you’re in a car you’re
walking in the bathroom everywhere you
can do email practically when you’re
awake and and so that’s really helpful
to have email for SpaceX and Tesla
integrated on my phone and then and they
then it’s just you have to apply a lot
of hours to actual working actually
working so the way I generally do it is
I’ll be working at SpaceX on Monday and
then Monday night flight to Bay Area
spent Tuesday and Wednesday at the Bay
Area
then that at Tesla and then fly back on
Wednesday night spend Thursday and
Friday at SpaceX in in the last several
months then I would fly back here on a
Saturday and either spend Saturday and
Sunday
Tesla or spend Saturday at Tesla and
Sunday at SpaceX and where did the boy
is fit in you have five sons yeah so did
we tag along with dad on some of these
boots I do drag them along and a lot of
things actually they’re remarkably
unimpressed by I think certainly being
focused on something that you’re
confident will have high value to
someone else and just being really
rigorous in making that assessment
because people are attend tend to
natural human tendency is wishful
thinking so a challenge for
entrepreneurs is to say well what’s the
difference between really believing in
your ideals and sticking sticking to
them versus pursuing some unrealistic
dream that doesn’t actually have merit
and it’s it’s that is it that is a
really difficult thing to to tell you
can you tell the difference between
those two things I know so you need to
be sort of very rigorous in your self
self analysis I think certainly
extremely tenacious and and then just
work like hell I mean you just have to
put in you know 80 hour if you don’t
hurt our weeks every week and then
matter like that all those things
improve the odds of success okay I mean
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 in in
one year you will achieve what that she
you you will achieve in four months what
it takes them a year to achieve when my
brother and I was studying our first
company instead of getting an apartment
we just rented us a small office and we
slept on the couch and we showered at
the YMCA and we’re so hot up we had just
one computer so the the website was up
during the day and I was coding at night
seven days a week all the time and I
sort of briefly had a gopher in that
period and in order to be with me she
have to sleep in the office
so I work hard like it mean every waking
hour that’s that’s the thing I would I
would say if you’re particularly if
you’re starting a company and I mean if
you do simple math to say like okay if
somebody else is working 50 hours when
you’re working 100 you’ll get twice as
done as much done in the course of a
year as as the other company so one of
the I think most common questions I hear
young people and bishops young people
ask is I want to be the next Elon Musk
how do I do that
obviously the next Elon Musk will work
on very different things than than you
did but what have you done or what did
you do when you were younger that you
think sort of set you up to have a big
impact
well I think first of all I should say
that I do not expect to be involved in
all these things so the the the the five
things that I thought about the time in
in college quite a long time ago 25
years ago you know being you know making
life multiplanetary selling accelerating
the transition to sustainable energy the
the Internet broadly speaking and and
then genetics and AI I think I didn’t
expect to be involved in in in all of
those things I actually at the time in
college I sort of thought helping with
electrification of cars which was how we
start out and that’s that’s actually
what I worked on as an intern was an
advanced ultracapacitors with to see
think there would be a breakthrough
relative to batteries for energy storage
and in cars and then when I came out to
go to Stanford
that’s what I was going to be doing my
grad studies on is it was working on her
best at energy storage technologies for
electric cars and I put that on hold to
start an Internet company hit in 95
because that didn’t seem to be like a
time for particular technologies when
they were at a steep point in the
inflection code and and I didn’t want to
you know do a PhD at Stanford and then
and what sure will happen and then and I
wasn’t entirely certain that the
technology I’d be working on would
actually
succeed I can get you can get a you know
doctrine on many things that ultimately
are not do not have practical bearing on
the world and I wanted to you know just
I really was just trying to be useful
that’s the optimization I was like what
are what can I do that would actually be
useful do you think people that want to
be useful today should get PhDs um
mostly not so what what is the best some
yes but mostly not how should someone
figure out how they can be most useful
or whatever this thing is that you’re
trying to create what would what would
be the utility Delta compared to the
current state-of-the-art
times how many people it would affect so
that’s why I think having something that
has a that’s that has a makes makes a
big difference but effects a sort of
small to moderate number of people is
great as is something that makes even a
small difference but but affects a vast
number of people like the area yeah on
you know under the yeah exactly I don’t
know every one of the curve is would
actually be roughly similar for those
two things so it’s actually really about
yeah just trying to be useful and manner
when you’re trying to estimate
probability of success so you say
something will be really useful then
area under the curve I guess to use the
example of SpaceX mmm-hmm when you made
the go decision that you’re actually
gonna do that this was kind of a very
crazy thing at the time very crazy there
Rosie
yeah I’m not shy about saying that but I
kind of regret I agreed with them that
it was quite crazy crazy if if the
objective was to achieve the best risk
adjusted return sliding our company is
insane but that was not that was not my
objective we try to a be personally
which is a very open plan to maximize
communication and make it sort of fairly
nice-looking this place used to be quite
dismal that’s my office over there
actually we really try to minimize the
number of offices that we have because
doors limit communication everyone
company with the exception of a few
people are like
our finance actually RQ statistical area
where people can meet and an absolute
impromptu your meeting must be also very
open I think it’s actually quite helpful
to have this openness because then you
can sort of see what people are working
now I’ve got a really special Elon Musk
bonus clip on how to use your time the
best way possible but before that I want
you to make a commitment of the day you
just watch this video
don’t just watch another video make it
have an impact and a meaning in your
life I want you to commit to making a
change somehow to your life or to your
business after watching this video
what are you committing to changing
leave it down the comments below I’m
really curious to find out thank you
guys so much for watching I believe in
you I hope you continue to believe in
yourself and whatever your one word is
much love I’ll see you soon and enjoy
how do you spend your days now like what
do you allocate most of your time to my
time is mostly split what’s between
SpaceX and Tesla and of course I I try
to spend it’s a part of every week at
open AI so I spend most I spend
basically half a day at opening I most
weeks and then and then I have some
opening I stuff that happens during the
week but other than that it’s really
enjoy sex or Tesla like what is your
time look like there yes it’s a good
question I think a lot of people think I
must spend a lot of time with media or
on business II things but actually
almost almost all my time like 80% of it
is spent on engineering design in
engineering and design so it’s
developing next generation product at
that’s 80% of it you probably remember
this a very long time ago many many
years you took me on a tour of SpaceX
and the most impressive thing was that
you knew every detail of the rocket and
every piece of engineering that went
into it I don’t think many people get
that about you yeah I think a lot of
people think I’m kind of a business
person or something it just fine I like
business is fine but a guy that really
eats you know it was like it SpaceX
Gwynne Shotwell was chief operating
officer she kind of manages legal
finance sales and kind of general
business activity and then my time is
almost entirely with the engineering
team working on improving that the
Falcon 9 and the Dragon spacecraft and
developing the most colonial
architecture I mean that Tesla it’s
working on the model 3 and some in the
design studio took a half a day a week
dealing with the aesthetics and and look
and feel things and and then most of our
week is just going through engineering
of the car itself as well as engineering
of the the factory raise your standard
Apple at the core its core value is that
we believe that people your passion can
change the way people not one drop of
myself work depends on your that’s
supposed to mean
I don’t ever give up I’d have to be dead
or completely incapacitated hey believe
nation if you want to see my all-time
favorite top ten most of success I have
a very special secret video for you
these are the individual clips that I
have personally learned the most from
and applied to my life and my business
check the link in description for details