10 Things That Motivate Elon Musk
By: Terrence Pugh
Tags: Google, Elon Musk, Future, Tech

What motivates someone to start companies such as Zip2, X.com, PayPal, SpaceX, Tesla, SolarCity, Hyperloop, OpenAI, Neuralink, and The Boring Company? From creating online services for local companies to reducing space transportation costs to ultimately colonize Mars. Elon Musk has proven that he loves to take on problems and improve how things have and are traditionally done.

Family

Born in South Africa in 1971 to his mom, a hard-working Canadian model and a father who is a wealthy South African engineer, Elon learned directly and indirectly how to be successful in his career. Elon also found motivation from his grandparents who were adventuring pilots. The family has to be one motivating factor for how Elon Musk operates today. Although it has been reported that Elon has not had the most cherished relationship with his father, family undoubtedly has played a big part in who Elon is today.

Books

Like most successful techies, Elon found a love for reading at a young age. This should not be understated. Reading improves concentration, teaches you about the world, improves vocabulary, develops a childhood imagination, develops empathy, and ultimately results in a better performance in school. Elon would not take long to start benefiting from reading, it has allowed his brain to visualize the endless achievements that he has started to reach in life.

Eight books that Elon has stated as being life-changing for him that you should check out are:

Bullies

Unfortunately, kids can be mean and bully others. No child should have to go through being bullied. Elon’s mom stated, “ It’s pretty rough in South Africa. If you’re getting bullied, you still have to go to school. You just have to get up in the morning and go. He hated it so much,” Musk was even once hospitalized as a result of boys throwing him down a flight of stairs.

Somehow Elon was able to survive a childhood infested with bullies. Although most would agree that Elon would still be very successful without childhood bullies I’m sure this traumatic experience keeps a chip on Elon’s shoulders.

Love of Science

Elon majored in both economics and physics. I actually can explain Elon’s love for science by simply stating that he majored in physics. Although there are popular stereotypes that were amplified by The Big Bang Theory, physics has always held a reputation of being a tough and rigorous undertaking.

Ego

After being successful for so long, it’s natural to pick up self-esteem, or even a sense of self-importance. With Elon’s battles with the SEC, and his twitter jabs at competitors, Elon knows his importance and the importance of his efforts. Honestly, one can easily assume that this is all fun for him, he loves the tweets, he loves pushing his positions on any forces of opposition.

Ensuring a Better Future

Although you could argue other intentions by Elon’s congratulatory tweet to ford, it’s hard to argue that he genuinely wants others to get on board with all-electric cars.

Majority, if not all of Elon’s startups are aiming to improve humanity. At the National Governors Association, Elon stated, “The thing that drives me is that I want to be able to think about the future and feel good about that.”

Doubters

A popular concept is that you are not doing things write or pushing the limits if you don’t have doubters. Elon knows that doubters are proof that he is in the right space and pushing the limits. Just like other motivating factors, Elon has to love proving doubters wrong.

Problems

There are two types of people, those who want their problem solved, and those who love to solve problems. Elon is undoubtedly the latter. Solving problems is a key catalyst in keeping Elon moving.

Waste

One thing that Elon is always looking to improve on is efficiency and one thing Elon hates is waste. In regards to meetings and time, Elon stated, “Walk out of a meeting or drop off a call as soon as it is obvious you aren’t adding value,” Musk advised. “It is not rude to leave, it is rude to make someone stay and waste their time.”

Another example of efficiency and hate of waste can be found in Elon’s The Boring Company. This company is an infrastructure and tunnel construction services company founded by Elon Musk in December 2016 to solve traffic issues in large cities. Currently, the company is looking at evolving from 2-D transportation and are building underground tracks for cars. While the company digs tunnels they also make bricks out of the dirt they dig from holes for underground roads.

The company has donated bricks and has also stated that these bricks can potentially be used as a portion of the tunnel lining itself, which is typically built from concrete. The company also stated that concrete production accounts for 4.5% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, earth bricks would reduce both environmental impact and tunneling costs.

Competition

Elon has to love competition, his startups are entering into spaces that have been dominated by large Fortune 100 companies for decades. Automobiles, Energy, and Space are not for the Milquetoast. You have to love competition to start companies in these fields.