Elon Musk was Me when I was 10

Elon Musk needs no introduction. His inventions speak for themselves. Although I have never paid close attention to his work and how he got it all started, it’s hard to deny that Elon is one of the best inventors of this century. One thing that makes me wonder, how did he come up with such brilliant ideas? How does he believe that his creation will succeed?

“I just want to build products to make the future better than the past.”

Well, who doesn’t? What Elon said actually sounds cliché and has probably been said by thousands of people. But, what sets us apart from Elon Musk? One thing for sure, he brought the ideas to life. He made it happen even though it sounded wild and crazy. Meanwhile, most of us just go on supposing. I bet, each of us has an idea of how to make this world a better place, but we both know how the story goes.

“I like to build products which bring joy. There are so few of those.”

Perhaps Elon wants to convey that most products when they are launched are only to get the maximum profit for the company. As well as additional features to solve consumer problems and complaints. If that were all, unfortunately, the company didn’t go any further. For Elon, it leaves people spending very little time creating products with a fun and minimal creative touch. Long story short, it is important to do it with joy which will lead to creativity and ultimately will also create happiness for consumers. Elon not only does envision and build new sophisticated products, which very amazing, but he also has so much fun doing it. Life is a matter of knowing how to have fun, isn’t it?

“I do zero market research. Try to think of what is the platonic ideal of, say, the perfect rocket or car. What characteristics would it have? And then, make that. And then, I find that if you do that, people will want to buy it.”

Wow, that all sounds different from what I’ve been studying in the MBA. Creating a product without market research? No lecturer will ever suggest that! What Elon Musk does is just like a child who has the desire to make a car as cool as possible and include whatever features he likes. Without much consideration as to whether other people like him or not, he makes it happen. And the rest is history.

Maybe only Elon Musk could do something so risky (and successful). I guess is only 1 in 1 million people can achieve it. I still doubt I can launch a product without knowing whether this product is needed by consumers or not. Creating products without feedback from consumers? I need to think about it many times. Maybe, there are things that Elon didn’t say about this. Or Elon is indeed a very bright person.

“When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.”

Last but not least, we can all agree that Elon knows why he did it all. As in Simon Sinek’s book explaining the golden circle theory, there is something much more important than how to do and what needs to be done, which is knowing why we need to achieve all of that. Tesla’s sophisticated car until his plan to bring humans to live on Mars is the way he does to create a better human civilization.

So, is the explanation above enough to answer my questions in the first paragraph? The insight that I got, Elon Musk is us when we were young who was never afraid to dream. As time goes by, we seem to feel more and more bound. We think too much about the risks. As for Elon, he’s still like a kid (in a good way). Well, Elon is just a person who believes in his idea. Can we?