trying to pull the company and have it
succeed is like eating glass and staring
into the abyss I think it’s worth
investing your own capital in what you
do I don’t believe in the sort of other
people’s money thing no one should put
this many hours into work this is not
he’s Elon Musk and here’s my take on his
okay let’s kick it off with rule number
one have a high pain threshold there’s a
friend of mine who’s got a great saying
about creating a company which is
creating credible the company and have
it succeed is like eating glass and
staring into the abyss so you know what
tends to happen is it’s sort of quite
exciting for the first several months of
starting a company and then then reality
sets in things don’t go as well as
planned
customers aren’t signing up the
technology of the part isn’t working as
well as you thought and and then can
that consumers be compounded by a
recession and it could be very very
painful for several years so I think
frankly starting a company you know I
would advise people to have a high pain
tolerance rule number two
generate word-of-mouth how aside from
making great products how do you get
people excited about Tesla there’s a lot
of people I know and that I talked to
who are just intrigued and interested
and excited about Tesla’s of company the
thing that really focus on at Tesla is
the grid put all the money into and
attention into trying to make the
product as compelling as possible so
because I think that the really the way
to sell any product is through
word-of-mouth so if a warrant somebody
gets the car they really like it they
and actually the key is like to have a
product that people love and journal
people if they’re a party or toward
friends or whatever you’ll talk about
the things that you love but if you just
like something it’s okay you’re not
gonna care that much but if you love
reactions from the highs and the lows
really I’m gonna you’re gonna talk you
know and then that’ll generate returns
word of mouth and that’s basically how
our sales have grown like we aren’t
we’re not spending money on advertising
or endorsements or
so anyone like fives our card they just
order because they they like the car and
you know it’s like it’s genuine rule
number three use your own money as if do
happened you sold it and it and bought
the McLaren and if I’m not mistaken you
invested most of that money into your
next your next venture
XCOM that’s right so yeah most of the
funds went into x-com which was later
renamed PayPal that worked out pretty
well it worked out pretty well but
looking at looking back on it would
because you put a lot of your eggs in
that basket would right would you advise
entrepreneurs to roll the bones quite
the way you do yeah absolutely I think
so
I think I think I think it’s worth
investing your own capital in what you
do I I don’t believe in the sort of
other people’s money thing you know I
think if you’re not willing to put your
own assets at stake then you shouldn’t
ask other people to do that to do that
rule number four ignore the competition
well we don’t think too much about what
board competitors are doing yeah just
because I think it’s important to be
just focused on making the best possible
products you know it’s sort of maybe now
I guess to what this about you know if
you’re in a canoe if you’re if you’re in
a race is it don’t worry about what how
the outer what the other runners are
doing just run rule number five find
your drives of 47 what is the likelihood
that you personally will go tomorrow
70% you’ve recently made number
breakthroughs that I bet that I’m just
really fired up about and when does that
happen in our lifetime yeah yeah I’m
talk about moving there so it’s like if
you get the price to figure maybe around
a couple thousand dollars this could be
an escape hatch for rich people know
you’re probably if Diane Maas is much
higher than earth really the Africa and
Mars would be like Shackleton’s
attributes Antarctic it’s gonna be hard
as a good chance of death
going in a little can through deep space
you might land successfully once you
land successfully there will be a mat
you’ll be working nonstop to both the
base series you’re not much time for
leisure and once you get there even
after doing all this is very harsh
environment so use a good chance to die
there we think you can come back but
we’re not sure now is that sound like an
escape hatch for rich people and yet you
would unhesitatingly go you know there’s
lots to like climb mountains you know
why they climb mountains because people
die on Mount Everest a little time they
like doing it for the challenge rule
number six persevere when did it occur
to you that zip two might be a success
well I mean when we first started out I
think our ambitions were really quite
quite low it was really to make enough
money to pay the rent yeah we got a visa
that’s money that was yeah it’s what we
thought it was all over then yeah it was
pretty crazy I mean when we start out at
95 we’re literally a beginning we had
one computer which would be the web
server during the day and and then at
night I’d program on it and and we’d
sleep in the office yeah we didn’t
afford to – yeah Department it was
cheaper to rent the office than to rent
an apartment so we just rented the
office and stepped in the office and
showered at the YMCA and the worst part
was eating a jack-in-the-box three times
yeah yeah man this it’s really difficult
to get food at Palo Alto after like
10:00 p.m. it’s like jack-in-the-box and
a few other options we rotate it through
the jack-in-the-box menu through the end
of 95 word that’s essentially were just
sleeping in the office and chairing the
YMCA and then and there around the end
of 95 as we’re nests Kate went public
and and then whether or not somebody
knew what the internet was they knew
that you could make money on the
internet somehow or even if it’s only on
the greater fool theory so when we went
and talked to venture capitalists in
early 96 there was a much greater
interest in what we were doing in fact
the round closed and like maybe a week
or something it’s crazy yeah
from sleeping in the office to people
throwing me up again this is a financial
crowd so you guys see these numbers
every day but for us who here will give
you three million dollars yeah Oh
extremely we thought they were crazy why
would they do that
it was literally these people are insane
obviously do not realize we’re sleeping
in the office in fact when they when
they did fund us they realized that we
were illegal immigrants well it’s a gray
area
yeah illegal immigrants we were sleeping
in the office we didn’t have a car we
had one car with the wheel kept falling
off but oh actually yeah the wheel that
actually fall off the car yes and the
venture kept us actually bought us cars
yeah well like I gave a sporty grand
it was pretty grand to go buy cars which
was more money than I ever seen rule
number seven make products people love
advice I’d give to people selling
company to entrepreneurs in general is
really focus on making a product that
your customers love and it’s so rare
that you can buy a product and you love
the product when you bought it the this
is this is there are very few things
that fit into that category and if you
if you can come up with something like
that your your business will be
successful for sure
rule number eight be willing to make
sacrifices well I mean Tesla really
faced this fear threat threat of death
due to the model 3 production ramped
essentially the company was bleeding
money like crazy and and just if we
didn’t solve these problems in a very
short period of time we would die and
was extremely difficult to solve them
how close to death did you come within
single inch of weeks 22 hours a day I
think what I mean I was working a so
seven days a week sleeping in the
factory worked every day from the I
worked in the poke to the paint shop
general assembly body shop you ever
worry about yourself imploding like it
just yeah absolutely
no one should put this many hours into
work
this is not good the pill should not
work this hard I didn’t look they should
not do this it was very painful painful
in what sense it’s because my hurts my
brain in my heart hurts this is not
recommended for anyone I just did it
because if I didn’t do it and has a good
chance of a diet rule number nine create
a great team you need a team around you
to deliver a lot of idea how do you
choose your team be somewhat well I
suppose honestly that it tends to be gut
feel more than anything else so when I
interview somebody the might of your
question is always the same it’s just I
said tell me the story of your life and
and the decisions that you made along
if and and also tell me about some of
the most difficult problems you worked
on and how you solved them and that
question I think is very important
because the people that really solve the
problem they know exactly how they
solved it they know the little details
and the people that pretend it to solve
the problem they can maybe go one level
and then they get stuck and rule number
ten the last one before a very special
bonus clip is have fun yeah we’re gonna
look at some memes right yes and say
things that are say funny things about
well I think we rate them oh we rate
them okay that’s a review and then they
were reviewing in the out of ten horse
okay I mean there’s some good memes here
is this the first one I believe so okay
yeah a spoon is just a small bowl on a
stick used to eat from a larger bowl
he’s honestly presentations in Congress
and you can see you can see how how how
easy it would be to just replace that
text and yeah add anything you want
there it’s almost as though he wasn’t
saying that so yeah I rate this out of
what’s the scale one to ten yeah
is it one to 1005 I guess yes maybe
maybe it’s a yeah is this range it’s a
mid-range mean yeah I don’t think this
one’s got legs also it’s kind of tipping
into the political area which is like
who needs it you know if I get off my
lawn so I give it a Madagascar and gas
car oh I see so you love you love
Madagascar because it’s just a such a
heartwarming wonderful film
but then gas car you’re like what I’ve
actually never seen this movie so you
never seen no I guess we know it’s a lot
of lemurs I refuse to watch any movie
with the word gas car in it I’ll make
you everything at 6:00 but how do you
feel about is that trippy – like for
real it does a meme of with you in it
are you sort of like what the hell yeah
or have you gotten over that and you’re
just like yeah well I mean this past a
couple years have been particularly last
year I was a meme city meme city yeah
ma’am City yeah I just a lot of memes ok
now this is this is a proper quandary ok
ok would you step on Stuart little for
18 billion dollars
I love how poor any Photoshop it’s like
it’s like it’s like they just they got a
gray color and just erased whatever the
hell yeah you keep the only sentient
Mouse or is it sentient or sentient
sessioned sentient say I’ve always said
sentient I’ve said scented sentient
sentient or sentient that post at all
who is that guy
that’s me oh my god is that a weird
combination of you and it is and this is
a real this is a is this a real tweet no
ah man dude nothing you can’t believe
yeah yeah this is where I’m face matched
with one that’s a funny meme that’s
funny one you could apply it not only to
you but to other celebrities and people
so yeah I think that’s a funny meme oh
yeah I give it up it could be it could
be just like a dumb drawing it could be
any good it could be so many wonderful
things I give us I say hey yeah it’s a
solid eight oh this is so meta me
laughing at the idea of me laughing at
me now I’ve got a special bonus cap from
Elon Musk and how to ask great questions
that I really think you’re gonna enjoy
but before that is time for the
three-point landing questions let’s go
from just watching a video to taking
action in your life for business here we
go question number one who’s the next
person you need to be able to create a
great team number two what’s your plan
this week to generate some word-of-mouth
and number three who is the competition
that you need to ignore innovation comes
from questioning the way things have
been done before yeah and if in the
education system you’re taught not to do
that that will inhibit entrepreneurship
being able to question what you’re being
taught being able to yeah I mean just
you know saying well is there a better
if you want more Elon Musk check out the
last top ten rules I made on him the
link is right there next to me I think
you’ll enjoy it continue to believe and
I’ll see you there
what was your biggest failure and how
did it change you it’s a really think hard about that failure
succeed is like eating glass and staring
into the abyss I think it’s worth
investing your own capital in what you
do I don’t believe in the sort of other
people’s money thing no one should put
this many hours into work this is not
he’s Elon Musk and here’s my take on his
okay let’s kick it off with rule number
one have a high pain threshold there’s a
friend of mine who’s got a great saying
about creating a company which is
creating credible the company and have
it succeed is like eating glass and
staring into the abyss so you know what
tends to happen is it’s sort of quite
exciting for the first several months of
starting a company and then then reality
sets in things don’t go as well as
planned
customers aren’t signing up the
technology of the part isn’t working as
well as you thought and and then can
that consumers be compounded by a
recession and it could be very very
painful for several years so I think
frankly starting a company you know I
would advise people to have a high pain
tolerance rule number two
generate word-of-mouth how aside from
making great products how do you get
people excited about Tesla there’s a lot
of people I know and that I talked to
who are just intrigued and interested
and excited about Tesla’s of company the
thing that really focus on at Tesla is
the grid put all the money into and
attention into trying to make the
product as compelling as possible so
because I think that the really the way
to sell any product is through
word-of-mouth so if a warrant somebody
gets the car they really like it they
and actually the key is like to have a
product that people love and journal
people if they’re a party or toward
friends or whatever you’ll talk about
the things that you love but if you just
like something it’s okay you’re not
gonna care that much but if you love
reactions from the highs and the lows
really I’m gonna you’re gonna talk you
know and then that’ll generate returns
word of mouth and that’s basically how
our sales have grown like we aren’t
we’re not spending money on advertising
or endorsements or
so anyone like fives our card they just
order because they they like the car and
you know it’s like it’s genuine rule
number three use your own money as if do
happened you sold it and it and bought
the McLaren and if I’m not mistaken you
invested most of that money into your
next your next venture
XCOM that’s right so yeah most of the
funds went into x-com which was later
renamed PayPal that worked out pretty
well it worked out pretty well but
looking at looking back on it would
because you put a lot of your eggs in
that basket would right would you advise
entrepreneurs to roll the bones quite
the way you do yeah absolutely I think
so
I think I think I think it’s worth
investing your own capital in what you
do I I don’t believe in the sort of
other people’s money thing you know I
think if you’re not willing to put your
own assets at stake then you shouldn’t
ask other people to do that to do that
rule number four ignore the competition
well we don’t think too much about what
board competitors are doing yeah just
because I think it’s important to be
just focused on making the best possible
products you know it’s sort of maybe now
I guess to what this about you know if
you’re in a canoe if you’re if you’re in
a race is it don’t worry about what how
the outer what the other runners are
doing just run rule number five find
your drives of 47 what is the likelihood
that you personally will go tomorrow
70% you’ve recently made number
breakthroughs that I bet that I’m just
really fired up about and when does that
happen in our lifetime yeah yeah I’m
talk about moving there so it’s like if
you get the price to figure maybe around
a couple thousand dollars this could be
an escape hatch for rich people know
you’re probably if Diane Maas is much
higher than earth really the Africa and
Mars would be like Shackleton’s
attributes Antarctic it’s gonna be hard
as a good chance of death
going in a little can through deep space
you might land successfully once you
land successfully there will be a mat
you’ll be working nonstop to both the
base series you’re not much time for
leisure and once you get there even
after doing all this is very harsh
environment so use a good chance to die
there we think you can come back but
we’re not sure now is that sound like an
escape hatch for rich people and yet you
would unhesitatingly go you know there’s
lots to like climb mountains you know
why they climb mountains because people
die on Mount Everest a little time they
like doing it for the challenge rule
number six persevere when did it occur
to you that zip two might be a success
well I mean when we first started out I
think our ambitions were really quite
quite low it was really to make enough
money to pay the rent yeah we got a visa
that’s money that was yeah it’s what we
thought it was all over then yeah it was
pretty crazy I mean when we start out at
95 we’re literally a beginning we had
one computer which would be the web
server during the day and and then at
night I’d program on it and and we’d
sleep in the office yeah we didn’t
afford to – yeah Department it was
cheaper to rent the office than to rent
an apartment so we just rented the
office and stepped in the office and
showered at the YMCA and the worst part
was eating a jack-in-the-box three times
yeah yeah man this it’s really difficult
to get food at Palo Alto after like
10:00 p.m. it’s like jack-in-the-box and
a few other options we rotate it through
the jack-in-the-box menu through the end
of 95 word that’s essentially were just
sleeping in the office and chairing the
YMCA and then and there around the end
of 95 as we’re nests Kate went public
and and then whether or not somebody
knew what the internet was they knew
that you could make money on the
internet somehow or even if it’s only on
the greater fool theory so when we went
and talked to venture capitalists in
early 96 there was a much greater
interest in what we were doing in fact
the round closed and like maybe a week
or something it’s crazy yeah
from sleeping in the office to people
throwing me up again this is a financial
crowd so you guys see these numbers
every day but for us who here will give
you three million dollars yeah Oh
extremely we thought they were crazy why
would they do that
it was literally these people are insane
obviously do not realize we’re sleeping
in the office in fact when they when
they did fund us they realized that we
were illegal immigrants well it’s a gray
area
yeah illegal immigrants we were sleeping
in the office we didn’t have a car we
had one car with the wheel kept falling
off but oh actually yeah the wheel that
actually fall off the car yes and the
venture kept us actually bought us cars
yeah well like I gave a sporty grand
it was pretty grand to go buy cars which
was more money than I ever seen rule
number seven make products people love
advice I’d give to people selling
company to entrepreneurs in general is
really focus on making a product that
your customers love and it’s so rare
that you can buy a product and you love
the product when you bought it the this
is this is there are very few things
that fit into that category and if you
if you can come up with something like
that your your business will be
successful for sure
rule number eight be willing to make
sacrifices well I mean Tesla really
faced this fear threat threat of death
due to the model 3 production ramped
essentially the company was bleeding
money like crazy and and just if we
didn’t solve these problems in a very
short period of time we would die and
was extremely difficult to solve them
how close to death did you come within
single inch of weeks 22 hours a day I
think what I mean I was working a so
seven days a week sleeping in the
factory worked every day from the I
worked in the poke to the paint shop
general assembly body shop you ever
worry about yourself imploding like it
just yeah absolutely
no one should put this many hours into
work
this is not good the pill should not
work this hard I didn’t look they should
not do this it was very painful painful
in what sense it’s because my hurts my
brain in my heart hurts this is not
recommended for anyone I just did it
because if I didn’t do it and has a good
chance of a diet rule number nine create
a great team you need a team around you
to deliver a lot of idea how do you
choose your team be somewhat well I
suppose honestly that it tends to be gut
feel more than anything else so when I
interview somebody the might of your
question is always the same it’s just I
said tell me the story of your life and
and the decisions that you made along
if and and also tell me about some of
the most difficult problems you worked
on and how you solved them and that
question I think is very important
because the people that really solve the
problem they know exactly how they
solved it they know the little details
and the people that pretend it to solve
the problem they can maybe go one level
and then they get stuck and rule number
ten the last one before a very special
bonus clip is have fun yeah we’re gonna
look at some memes right yes and say
things that are say funny things about
well I think we rate them oh we rate
them okay that’s a review and then they
were reviewing in the out of ten horse
okay I mean there’s some good memes here
is this the first one I believe so okay
yeah a spoon is just a small bowl on a
stick used to eat from a larger bowl
he’s honestly presentations in Congress
and you can see you can see how how how
easy it would be to just replace that
text and yeah add anything you want
there it’s almost as though he wasn’t
saying that so yeah I rate this out of
what’s the scale one to ten yeah
is it one to 1005 I guess yes maybe
maybe it’s a yeah is this range it’s a
mid-range mean yeah I don’t think this
one’s got legs also it’s kind of tipping
into the political area which is like
who needs it you know if I get off my
lawn so I give it a Madagascar and gas
car oh I see so you love you love
Madagascar because it’s just a such a
heartwarming wonderful film
but then gas car you’re like what I’ve
actually never seen this movie so you
never seen no I guess we know it’s a lot
of lemurs I refuse to watch any movie
with the word gas car in it I’ll make
you everything at 6:00 but how do you
feel about is that trippy – like for
real it does a meme of with you in it
are you sort of like what the hell yeah
or have you gotten over that and you’re
just like yeah well I mean this past a
couple years have been particularly last
year I was a meme city meme city yeah
ma’am City yeah I just a lot of memes ok
now this is this is a proper quandary ok
ok would you step on Stuart little for
18 billion dollars
I love how poor any Photoshop it’s like
it’s like it’s like they just they got a
gray color and just erased whatever the
hell yeah you keep the only sentient
Mouse or is it sentient or sentient
sessioned sentient say I’ve always said
sentient I’ve said scented sentient
sentient or sentient that post at all
who is that guy
that’s me oh my god is that a weird
combination of you and it is and this is
a real this is a is this a real tweet no
ah man dude nothing you can’t believe
yeah yeah this is where I’m face matched
with one that’s a funny meme that’s
funny one you could apply it not only to
you but to other celebrities and people
so yeah I think that’s a funny meme oh
yeah I give it up it could be it could
be just like a dumb drawing it could be
any good it could be so many wonderful
things I give us I say hey yeah it’s a
solid eight oh this is so meta me
laughing at the idea of me laughing at
me now I’ve got a special bonus cap from
Elon Musk and how to ask great questions
that I really think you’re gonna enjoy
but before that is time for the
three-point landing questions let’s go
from just watching a video to taking
action in your life for business here we
go question number one who’s the next
person you need to be able to create a
great team number two what’s your plan
this week to generate some word-of-mouth
and number three who is the competition
that you need to ignore innovation comes
from questioning the way things have
been done before yeah and if in the
education system you’re taught not to do
that that will inhibit entrepreneurship
being able to question what you’re being
taught being able to yeah I mean just
you know saying well is there a better
if you want more Elon Musk check out the
last top ten rules I made on him the
link is right there next to me I think
you’ll enjoy it continue to believe and
I’ll see you there
what was your biggest failure and how
did it change you it’s a really think hard about that failure
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