The story of Ilona Mask - Infographics
Today, Ilon Musk, is the most futuristic-minded person on Earth. How did he manage to become an outstanding personality?
A hundred years later, when most of those who read this article, as well as its author, will not be alive for a long time, cars and rockets created by Ilona Mask will continue to circle around the Earth and in space. How he was able to reach such heights, despite all the difficulties on his way - that is the question that we will reveal in this article. And most importantly: what can we learn from his life path?
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It may seem a little naive to you to imitate Ilona Mask, because he stands out even among millionaires. However, this is precisely why it will be interesting for us to learn about his life - it’s impossible to feel inspired when there is one triviality around you.
It goes without saying that we cannot accurately recreate all life situations Ilona: we all have our parents, we all live in different countries and each of us has our own habits and hobbies. However, despite these differences, we can all control our thoughts just as he does. At the very least, we can borrow some of Ilona's features: the way in which he copes with uncertainty, which books he likes to read, in which situations he makes promises and how he does it, as well as how he corrects his own mistakes.
You may have skeptical thoughts: they say, if I analyze someone’s life situations, how it will help me in my own life. Of course, the life circumstances of each of us are different, and Musk would be the first to advise us to build on the root causes of our problems - an approach inherent to scientists - rather than follow the analogy of someone else's actions [1] . Why do we have to think like Ilon Musk? After all, in the end, we can know something better than him. Yes, it is true that when starting to solve a problem, we must build on the cause of its occurrence in order to get a more suitable result. However, this approach requires a certain time, which is limited for all of us on this planet. Yes, in order for the solution to be effective, it is necessary to solve the problem from the very beginning. In order to minimize the number of our mistakes, we do not need to do exactly what Musk did, but it is necessary to understand why he did just that. And after that we can apply his method of thinking to what we know for sure.
One of the psychological problems that we can encounter while exploring the lives of other people is the narrative barrier — drawing a flawless story from carefully selected facts that were not understandable to a person at the time they occurred. As follows from the theory written in the book "Black Swan", which considers unpredictable events, we do this because we are faced with the chance of life: we can explain this, because we know for sure how this story will end. We, most likely, will not even understand why we do not know what is unknown to us.
The media often do this. Numerous articles about Ilona Mask attribute him genius, which, of course, he possesses. However, such labels make all of his achievements, as if prescribed in advance, take for granted. In fact, this is far from the case. For example, Ilona Mask still has to wage a fierce battle with large oil companies that wish with all their hearts to see the collapse of Tesla. [2]
We can assume the following: Ilon surely knows what to do in such a situation, because he is a “genius”. However, being a genius is not enough - this is not a strategy. No one can guarantee him that he will emerge victorious in this fight. While you are reading this article, he is solving a difficult task for himself - how to cope with the uncertainty of his position.
So how does he make decisions?
Life is a combination of decisions. Circumstances are, in varying degrees, the actions of other people affecting you, including people you have never met, such as politicians. Results - your decisions + circumstances.
If we take any significant event in the biography of Ilona Mask, it becomes obvious that at this time interval he had to make a large number of decisions. In fairness it should be said that Ilon Mask achieved most of all thanks to the decisions made by him, and not to favorable circumstances. Mask was decisive from the start. Even just looking at the schedule of his life path, it becomes clear that the decisions made by him outnumber the number of favorable circumstances.
When we complain about our lives, we mostly complain about the circumstances, not about our decisions. From the side it may seem that we are fixated on life circumstances. In most cases, when the author meets a new person, her first question concerns precisely the circumstances: where does she come from, or where does she live now, or how long does she live in San Francisco? And in other countries where she lived before, people ask similar questions. And only after they get to know each other a little bit better, they ask questions about Anna’s decisions, for example: why did she decide to become an IT developer. Why are people primarily interested in circumstances? Surely, this is due to the fact that circumstances overtake us much earlier than we have to make any decisions, because we don’t even choose our place of birth. However, it is our decisions that are of greater interest, since it is with their help that we overcome the circumstances in our lives. After all, it is thanks to them that we can change our life, make it so that circumstances will no longer play a special role. Ilon Musk was born in South Africa. How do you think this is good or bad? The author believes that it does not matter. Much more important is that he, as a child, decided to move to the United States. How did he come to that decision? This is a really interesting question.
What lesson can I learn from this?
Try a little experiment: mark on the chart all the most significant events in your life, starting from your birth and ending with the present day. After that, check whether each significant event is your decision, circumstance or result. Determine for yourself: the number of decisions you make is equal to the number of circumstances affecting your life; if so, did you make decisions before this or that circumstance; Does the number of decisions you make exceed the number of circumstances?
Ilon Musk doesn’t even apply to his authorized biographer about his life together with his father. He only mentions that this period of his life was “unbearable” for him and that it was common for him to experience emotional torment. In his autobiography, Ilon says that he will never allow his children to meet with his father. From which we can conclude that his childhood memories are more painful than most people. [3]
Ironically, and unlike most children, after the divorce of parents, Ilon Musk had the opportunity to live with his mother, but instead he decided to live with his father. Most children aged 9, or any other age, will not want to live with a rude parent, provided that the child has a choice. Ilon often mentions his difficult childhood as the reason why he manages to cope with the stress of his work. So why did he make that choice? He did not explain. But the author believes that this gives us enough food for thought.
“The Endless Nightmare” - this is how Ilon Mask describes the period of life when, in addition to the emotional torment that he practically experienced as a result of his father’s behavior, he was subjected to mockery at school. Musk himself believes that all these misfortunes only made him stronger. Nevertheless, being the father of five sons, he ambiguously responds that such tests are an appropriate method of education. However, realizing that his children are in much better conditions, he wonders how can such life-related adversities be created. [four]
What lesson can I learn from this?
Is it true that any life troubles make us stronger? Or maybe some of us do not withstand the pressure of such situations and give up? For example, draw a diagram that displays the difficult periods of a person’s life, as well as his achievements during these periods; then trace the relationship between difficult situations and the successes achieved during such periods. And if your schedule is not enough "hard" life situations, you can easily recreate them: just emigrate to a foreign country, start your own startup, promise people more than you are currently able to do - all this as a whole, for sure will cause you enough stress so that you feel what it is like to be in your own “endless nightmare”.
One of the main points in the biography of Ilona Musk came when he received his computer. Together with the computer, he also got a textbook on the programming language BASIC. Studying BASIC with such a textbook suggested classes for 6 months, however, Mask decided that he would not sleep for 3 nights in a row and would finish the textbook during this time. For 3 days he became a real programmer according to 1984 standards. His recently acquired abilities gave their first fruits - he wrote the game “Blastar” [5] and sold it for $ 500.
The author believes that, watching people who learn something much faster than we do, causes a surge of deep emotions inside us. Even today, in most countries, early graduation of students is not encouraged by institutions, even if such students learn faster than others. Future lawyers and doctors must be in schools for a certain period of time, regardless of the speed of their training. The author remembers that about 80% of all necessary information in a law college was given during the first year of study, and many students of that time expressed similar assumptions. However, before the graduation from college she had two years left, and there was no way to speed up this process. Of course, this has little to do with certain areas where people can usually learn almost everything on their own, for example: art, music, or programming. And Musk took full advantage of self-study opportunities.
What lesson can I learn from this?
There are several proven ways to help you quickly master the right skills. For myself, the author chose to study the art of realistic drawing. She used to think that in order to draw, you need talent. Now she believes that talent is just a codename for a skill that we have not developed in ourselves up to the present. The author read “Drawing on the Right Side of Brain” by Betty Edwards and did the exercises suggested in this book. She began to draw realistic drawings after 5 days. Try it yourself for something like this.
In order to unlock the potential you need to go somewhere far away. Ilon Musk began planning his escape from South Africa as soon as he learned a little better about America. He understood perfectly that his idea was a cliché, however, he was not going to depart from it. He was not interested in criticizing the system, on the contrary, he was captivated by the thought of moving risky people into the country, especially since he was such a person.
What lesson can I learn from this?
Do you know this feeling when you come to a foreign country and understand that for everyone you are just a beginner here?
You should not think that Ilon Mask considers doing physical work as something that is below his dignity. On the contrary, he takes it for granted. When he moved to Canada alone, he was only 17 years old. He turned up work, where he, in a protective suit, raked dirt in the boiler room. Even today, being already dressed in designer clothes, Ilon Musk paces around the territory of his own rocket factory and sometimes participates in some processes that require physical work, without even thinking that his fashionable clothes will be smeared with epoxy.
What lesson can I learn from this?
This may be the easiest of all lessons - don't be afraid to get your hands dirty by doing physical work. Maybe it is from her that you will begin your journey.
Unlike other people and companies, Ilon Mask has an unusual futuristic attitude. He does not hide his far-reaching plans from others, for example, he once said that he was going to meet death on Mars after helping millions of other people to move to this planet with the help of his space ships. Already, you can buy a ticket for a flight to Mars for 500 thousand dollars. You can consider such plans as a marketing ploy, and not take them seriously - many also did not take the young Mask seriously [6] . But now we probably know that he fully justifies his own ambitions.
What lesson can I learn from this?
Try to create a stressful situation for yourself by telling other people your wildest plans, and see what happens. Of course, other prominent people, such as Jeff Bezos or Steve Jobs, did just the opposite. It probably makes sense to tell other people about your plans, if you probably know that no one who listens to you can borrow your ideas.
It is known that Ilon Musk is not inclined to become attached to things or people. He looks only forward. Ironically, he has something to remember and regret: his first child died on the 10th month of life, he divorced his first wife, the first three launches of his missiles were unsuccessful - during one of the launches the rocket exploded, destroying the expensive cargo of NASA. He broke promises, broke deadlines, did wrong calculations - after which he had to charge customers an additional fee after they paid (Mask had to ask 400 buyers who paid the prepayment to pay another 17 thousand dollars for the Roadster). [7] For most people, even this is quite enough to look back and conclude that perhaps it is time to curb their ambitions or build relationships, etc. But this is not the case - despite all its flaws Ilon Musk capable of great things. What he creates fully justifies the mistakes he has made. At the age of 46, he got more than he managed to lose - more successfully launched missiles, more cars created and more children he has to raise.
What lesson can I learn from this?
Think about this: if you are sure that in the future, even more roads will open up before you, then you have no reason to be sad about the lost opportunities. Regret should come to you only if you have already managed to lose more than you can achieve. The most important factor is probably the fact that you still believe in the possibility of achieving your goals. We need to convince ourselves that the window of opportunity is not yet closed. Think about the fact that our intuition is often mistaken about this - so far a critical period in learning has not been established. And this statement is true even in relation to the study of foreign languages. [8] Yes, most adult immigrants speak with an accent, but this does not apply to their age. It turns out that when you learn your first language, your parents speak with you in the “native” version of the language, which implies emphasizing precisely those sounds that are most difficult to distinguish. In addition, they are very patiently helping to speak the words for you. Probably, after we reach a certain age, we become impatient with ourselves. But this is our conscious choice. Perhaps no one foresees our mistakes, and at any age we could find a teacher patient with our failures. So does it make sense to look back and regret something? Yes, but only if you can find convincing evidence that it is because of your age that you can no longer fulfill your dreams.
Compared to what Ilon is doing now - designing electric cars, rockets and solar batteries - his first enterprises were ridiculously simple. He sold computer parts in his dorm room and even arranged a kind of underground bar from his home. Would he deal with all this if he knew for sure that ahead of him waiting for the design of electric cars? I think no. It seems that at that time, step by step, by touch, he was approaching his goal, having no idea how to approach her reddit .
What lesson can I learn from this?
If you are looking for a foothold for the start, then start with something, without even thinking about what exactly. In the end, it doesn’t matter where you started.
Most people will say that they cannot start their startup due to lack of money. In his autobiography, Ilon Mask indicated the exact amount that was enough for him to take action. For two with brother Kimball, they received from father 28 thousand dollars, they also managed to find 6 thousand more, which were made by their mutual friend, Greg Kouri, who joined them as a co-founder of Zip2. [9]
Today, the sum of 34 thousand US dollars adjusted for inflation is 53 thousand. This amount was enough to open its office in Palo Alto. Mask and his brother had to sleep in the office, wash in the nearby YMCA building and follow a strict diet consisting entirely of fast food.
What lesson can I learn from this?
Would Ilon have backed away from his dream, had he not been in possession of 53 thousand dollars? Surely, in order to earn money, he would go to work somewhere in a coffee shop, where he would sleep, sitting on the couch. However, Anna seems incredible that if Ilona Mask had not had this amount, he would have refused all his plans. Do these 53,000 (or any other amount) play a huge role for you when deciding whether to start or quit all? Determine for yourself the minimum amount of initial capital.
When Ilon Mask decided to devote himself to the cosmos, he probably understood that it would be nice to learn something about this very cosmos. He decided for himself that money alone (which he still didn’t have at the time), with the help of which companies producing rocket technology were financed, did not solve any problems. Many rich people have already done something similar many times: they simply invested fabulous sums in another space project and helplessly - due to their lack of engineering knowledge - they watched its inevitable fiasco. But not Ilon Musk. Jim Cantrell, an aerospace engineer who Ilon offered to collaborate back in 2001, said the following about Mask’s ability to learn: “He literally absorbs the knowledge and experience of the people around him. When we first started working in 2001, he asked me for all my records about the rocket engine, which I made back in college. ” [ten]
What lesson can I learn from this?
Knowledge became available. Knowledge will always be with you, and they do not burden you with their cargo. All books in libraries are free. Do not underestimate how much you can learn for yourself just by reading a book.
Ilona Mask had the same scheme for both SpaceX and Tesla: to promise the unthinkable; postpone several times the presentation of the promised; ultimately, present the upcoming product; give the word that soon this product will go on sale; postpone the product for sale several times; in the end, release a ready-made product that exceeds all expectations.
Being engaged in design, the author noted for herself that only two characteristics out of three can be inherent in the product being created: originality, speed of execution, low cost. It seems that Ilon Musk is not going to compromise with originality. At the same time, he definitely strives to make the product as less expensive as possible (thanks to him, the cost of launching rockets has decreased by 100 times, and the Model 3 costs only $ 25,000 including taxes). However, as far as speed, she doesn't even smell here: the Model X release, for example, was delayed for 3 years.
What lesson can I learn from this?
No need to treat yourself too strictly. In order to create something worthwhile, it takes some time. Yes, some people create prototypes of their products in just a few days, but it will still take some time before their prototypes become truly incredible.
The following graph briefly shows the history of Tesla through the eyes of the stock exchanges. It shows that the company's shares have not risen in value for several years, because Tesla could not boast of a profit. Shares of the company did not buy, despite the optimism of Ilon. When in April 2013, Ilon Mask first announced the profit, Tesla shares soared. You can also track the steps that Ilon Musk took, and how the company's shares rose in price.
Mask managed to carry out a successful launch of its space rocket only from the 4th time. And this number is negligible compared to how many attempts were made by its competitors and how much equipment was destroyed during their trial launches before they managed something like that.
The key difference between Mask and his competitors is that Ilon only had money for 4 launches, and if the 4th launch was unsuccessful, it would mean a complete collapse for him.
What lesson can I learn from this?
It is difficult to say that Ilona Mask was always lucky, considering SpaceX’s thorny path to success. You may be lucky more or less. You can compensate for the lack of luck with even more perseverance.
The image below shows all of Ilona’s successful attempts at launching missiles. It seems that the size of the rocket is directly proportional to the growing confidence in the Mask. However, even his path cannot be called ideal, as evidenced by 3 unsuccessful launches at the very beginning.
“I'd rather make myself a seppuku than fail,” Mask once told one of his investors in order to receive financing. [11] This phrase perfectly characterizes Ilona: he can move slowly, but he will achieve the desired goal. He may delay the fulfillment of his promises, he may seem overly annoying, he may be dismissed from the established company, but he will never accept failure.
What lesson can I learn from this?
You will not fail if you do not give up. Why give up? Find the reasons for the failures and correct them.
__________
Most of the facts in this article were taken from the book by Ashley Vance “ Ilon Mask. Tesla, SpaceX and the road to the future . "
Ashley Vance, compatriot Ilona Mask and the author of his biography, written with the participation and not received final approval of the main character, describes in detail the main events in the life of Ilon: starting with the description of the grandparents Mask and up to 2015, when the book was released. Biography Ilona Mask written by Ashley Vance tries to convey to us the worldview of Ilona, ​​who is convinced that: employees very quickly become complacent;aerospace industry is not competitive and not independent; people involved in venture investment are short-sighted; the co-founders have lost any incentive to what they are doing; engineers are too pessimistic about their abilities. And despite this, Ilon Musk continues to devote at least 100 hours a week to work. His world view is easy to adopt, since it is optimistic in nature. However, after reading the book to the end, we can conclude that the author did not notice the most important thing when comparing Ilona Mask with Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg: they all just created some kind of product, while Ilon Musk is building the future.
1. In his interview with Kevin Rose, Ilon Musk spoke about his worldview.
2. Ilon Musk tweeted what he thought about the news about the intention of the Koch brothers, interested in the development of the oil industry, to spend $ 10 million on the development of a campaign against electric vehicles.
3. When asked about the relationship between him and his father, Ilon Musk declined to give a direct answer. His answer, which Vance posted in the 2nd chapter of his book, sounds more than two-fold:
“You can say for sure that my childhood was not happy,” says Musk. “Perhaps, if I tell you about my childhood, it will seem to you that it was happy, but this is not so. It cannot be said that nothing good happened to me at this time, but this time was not happy. It was filled with torment. My father knows how to make the life of others unbearable. He can defile any situation. He is an unhappy man. I do not know ... damn ... I do not know how people become like him. I'd rather not say anything more about him. ” Ilon and Justine swore that they would not allow their children to meet with Errol (father Ilona Mask).
4. Ilon realizes that his children will not have such a complicated childhood as he had. It bothers him. He does not know how to act in such a situation. In the last chapter of his book, the author quotes Ilona Mask: “What can I do? Specially come up with some difficulties for them? I do not know how I will do it. ”
5. The source code of the game Blastar was published in one of the magazines, so someone recreated it.
6. When Ilon Musk first said that he was going to establish his own rocket company, people did not take his words seriously. The 6th chapter of the book describes the memories of Robert Zubrin, the founder of the Mars Society: “At that time, everyone who listened to Ilona sighed and said that Musk would just spend hundreds of millions of dollars and, quite likely, he would fail, like everyone who tried do something like this before him. "
7. In Chapter 10, Vance writes that Musk, in his personal name, sent messages about price increases to Tesla Roadster buyers, who had already paid $ 92,000 for a car. Now the cost of the car started with 109 thousand dollars.
8. No one has yet proved that after a person reaches a certain age, he is no longer able to learn foreign languages, which is also described in the book Neuroscience, published by Sinauer Associates.
9. In the 4th chapter of his book, Vance writes: “Errol Mask gave his sons 28 thousand dollars, trying to help them in that difficult period of their lives. However, this money was barely enough to rent an office, buy a license for software and the necessary equipment. ”
10. Jim Cantrell, a member of the SpaceX team, left a comment on Quora about how Ilon Musk studied rocket science.
11. In Chapter 4 of the book “Ilon Musk,” Vance describes how Ilon told one of the venture capitalists something like the following: “My mentality is the samurai mentality. I'd rather make myself a seppuku than fail. ”
A hundred years later, when most of those who read this article, as well as its author, will not be alive for a long time, cars and rockets created by Ilona Mask will continue to circle around the Earth and in space. How he was able to reach such heights, despite all the difficulties on his way - that is the question that we will reveal in this article. And most importantly: what can we learn from his life path?
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Learn from other people
It may seem a little naive to you to imitate Ilona Mask, because he stands out even among millionaires. However, this is precisely why it will be interesting for us to learn about his life - it’s impossible to feel inspired when there is one triviality around you.
It goes without saying that we cannot accurately recreate all life situations Ilona: we all have our parents, we all live in different countries and each of us has our own habits and hobbies. However, despite these differences, we can all control our thoughts just as he does. At the very least, we can borrow some of Ilona's features: the way in which he copes with uncertainty, which books he likes to read, in which situations he makes promises and how he does it, as well as how he corrects his own mistakes.
Search for root causes and not act by analogy.
You may have skeptical thoughts: they say, if I analyze someone’s life situations, how it will help me in my own life. Of course, the life circumstances of each of us are different, and Musk would be the first to advise us to build on the root causes of our problems - an approach inherent to scientists - rather than follow the analogy of someone else's actions [1] . Why do we have to think like Ilon Musk? After all, in the end, we can know something better than him. Yes, it is true that when starting to solve a problem, we must build on the cause of its occurrence in order to get a more suitable result. However, this approach requires a certain time, which is limited for all of us on this planet. Yes, in order for the solution to be effective, it is necessary to solve the problem from the very beginning. In order to minimize the number of our mistakes, we do not need to do exactly what Musk did, but it is necessary to understand why he did just that. And after that we can apply his method of thinking to what we know for sure.
Easy to explain greatness in retrospect - narrative barrier
One of the psychological problems that we can encounter while exploring the lives of other people is the narrative barrier — drawing a flawless story from carefully selected facts that were not understandable to a person at the time they occurred. As follows from the theory written in the book "Black Swan", which considers unpredictable events, we do this because we are faced with the chance of life: we can explain this, because we know for sure how this story will end. We, most likely, will not even understand why we do not know what is unknown to us.
The media often do this. Numerous articles about Ilona Mask attribute him genius, which, of course, he possesses. However, such labels make all of his achievements, as if prescribed in advance, take for granted. In fact, this is far from the case. For example, Ilona Mask still has to wage a fierce battle with large oil companies that wish with all their hearts to see the collapse of Tesla. [2]
We can assume the following: Ilon surely knows what to do in such a situation, because he is a “genius”. However, being a genius is not enough - this is not a strategy. No one can guarantee him that he will emerge victorious in this fight. While you are reading this article, he is solving a difficult task for himself - how to cope with the uncertainty of his position.
So how does he make decisions?
Life = decisions + circumstances + results
Life is a combination of decisions. Circumstances are, in varying degrees, the actions of other people affecting you, including people you have never met, such as politicians. Results - your decisions + circumstances.
If we take any significant event in the biography of Ilona Mask, it becomes obvious that at this time interval he had to make a large number of decisions. In fairness it should be said that Ilon Mask achieved most of all thanks to the decisions made by him, and not to favorable circumstances. Mask was decisive from the start. Even just looking at the schedule of his life path, it becomes clear that the decisions made by him outnumber the number of favorable circumstances.
When we complain about our lives, we mostly complain about the circumstances, not about our decisions. From the side it may seem that we are fixated on life circumstances. In most cases, when the author meets a new person, her first question concerns precisely the circumstances: where does she come from, or where does she live now, or how long does she live in San Francisco? And in other countries where she lived before, people ask similar questions. And only after they get to know each other a little bit better, they ask questions about Anna’s decisions, for example: why did she decide to become an IT developer. Why are people primarily interested in circumstances? Surely, this is due to the fact that circumstances overtake us much earlier than we have to make any decisions, because we don’t even choose our place of birth. However, it is our decisions that are of greater interest, since it is with their help that we overcome the circumstances in our lives. After all, it is thanks to them that we can change our life, make it so that circumstances will no longer play a special role. Ilon Musk was born in South Africa. How do you think this is good or bad? The author believes that it does not matter. Much more important is that he, as a child, decided to move to the United States. How did he come to that decision? This is a really interesting question.
What lesson can I learn from this?
Try a little experiment: mark on the chart all the most significant events in your life, starting from your birth and ending with the present day. After that, check whether each significant event is your decision, circumstance or result. Determine for yourself: the number of decisions you make is equal to the number of circumstances affecting your life; if so, did you make decisions before this or that circumstance; Does the number of decisions you make exceed the number of circumstances?
The choice is in favor of strict father
Ilon Musk doesn’t even apply to his authorized biographer about his life together with his father. He only mentions that this period of his life was “unbearable” for him and that it was common for him to experience emotional torment. In his autobiography, Ilon says that he will never allow his children to meet with his father. From which we can conclude that his childhood memories are more painful than most people. [3]
Ironically, and unlike most children, after the divorce of parents, Ilon Musk had the opportunity to live with his mother, but instead he decided to live with his father. Most children aged 9, or any other age, will not want to live with a rude parent, provided that the child has a choice. Ilon often mentions his difficult childhood as the reason why he manages to cope with the stress of his work. So why did he make that choice? He did not explain. But the author believes that this gives us enough food for thought.
“The Endless Nightmare” - this is how Ilon Mask describes the period of life when, in addition to the emotional torment that he practically experienced as a result of his father’s behavior, he was subjected to mockery at school. Musk himself believes that all these misfortunes only made him stronger. Nevertheless, being the father of five sons, he ambiguously responds that such tests are an appropriate method of education. However, realizing that his children are in much better conditions, he wonders how can such life-related adversities be created. [four]
What lesson can I learn from this?
Is it true that any life troubles make us stronger? Or maybe some of us do not withstand the pressure of such situations and give up? For example, draw a diagram that displays the difficult periods of a person’s life, as well as his achievements during these periods; then trace the relationship between difficult situations and the successes achieved during such periods. And if your schedule is not enough "hard" life situations, you can easily recreate them: just emigrate to a foreign country, start your own startup, promise people more than you are currently able to do - all this as a whole, for sure will cause you enough stress so that you feel what it is like to be in your own “endless nightmare”.
Learn faster than expected from you
One of the main points in the biography of Ilona Musk came when he received his computer. Together with the computer, he also got a textbook on the programming language BASIC. Studying BASIC with such a textbook suggested classes for 6 months, however, Mask decided that he would not sleep for 3 nights in a row and would finish the textbook during this time. For 3 days he became a real programmer according to 1984 standards. His recently acquired abilities gave their first fruits - he wrote the game “Blastar” [5] and sold it for $ 500.
The author believes that, watching people who learn something much faster than we do, causes a surge of deep emotions inside us. Even today, in most countries, early graduation of students is not encouraged by institutions, even if such students learn faster than others. Future lawyers and doctors must be in schools for a certain period of time, regardless of the speed of their training. The author remembers that about 80% of all necessary information in a law college was given during the first year of study, and many students of that time expressed similar assumptions. However, before the graduation from college she had two years left, and there was no way to speed up this process. Of course, this has little to do with certain areas where people can usually learn almost everything on their own, for example: art, music, or programming. And Musk took full advantage of self-study opportunities.
What lesson can I learn from this?
There are several proven ways to help you quickly master the right skills. For myself, the author chose to study the art of realistic drawing. She used to think that in order to draw, you need talent. Now she believes that talent is just a codename for a skill that we have not developed in ourselves up to the present. The author read “Drawing on the Right Side of Brain” by Betty Edwards and did the exercises suggested in this book. She began to draw realistic drawings after 5 days. Try it yourself for something like this.
A look at life after emigration
In order to unlock the potential you need to go somewhere far away. Ilon Musk began planning his escape from South Africa as soon as he learned a little better about America. He understood perfectly that his idea was a cliché, however, he was not going to depart from it. He was not interested in criticizing the system, on the contrary, he was captivated by the thought of moving risky people into the country, especially since he was such a person.
What lesson can I learn from this?
Do you know this feeling when you come to a foreign country and understand that for everyone you are just a beginner here?
Do not be afraid to get your hands dirty with dirty work.
You should not think that Ilon Mask considers doing physical work as something that is below his dignity. On the contrary, he takes it for granted. When he moved to Canada alone, he was only 17 years old. He turned up work, where he, in a protective suit, raked dirt in the boiler room. Even today, being already dressed in designer clothes, Ilon Musk paces around the territory of his own rocket factory and sometimes participates in some processes that require physical work, without even thinking that his fashionable clothes will be smeared with epoxy.
What lesson can I learn from this?
This may be the easiest of all lessons - don't be afraid to get your hands dirty by doing physical work. Maybe it is from her that you will begin your journey.
Share ambitions and plans with other people.
Unlike other people and companies, Ilon Mask has an unusual futuristic attitude. He does not hide his far-reaching plans from others, for example, he once said that he was going to meet death on Mars after helping millions of other people to move to this planet with the help of his space ships. Already, you can buy a ticket for a flight to Mars for 500 thousand dollars. You can consider such plans as a marketing ploy, and not take them seriously - many also did not take the young Mask seriously [6] . But now we probably know that he fully justifies his own ambitions.
What lesson can I learn from this?
Try to create a stressful situation for yourself by telling other people your wildest plans, and see what happens. Of course, other prominent people, such as Jeff Bezos or Steve Jobs, did just the opposite. It probably makes sense to tell other people about your plans, if you probably know that no one who listens to you can borrow your ideas.
Do not look back
It is known that Ilon Musk is not inclined to become attached to things or people. He looks only forward. Ironically, he has something to remember and regret: his first child died on the 10th month of life, he divorced his first wife, the first three launches of his missiles were unsuccessful - during one of the launches the rocket exploded, destroying the expensive cargo of NASA. He broke promises, broke deadlines, did wrong calculations - after which he had to charge customers an additional fee after they paid (Mask had to ask 400 buyers who paid the prepayment to pay another 17 thousand dollars for the Roadster). [7] For most people, even this is quite enough to look back and conclude that perhaps it is time to curb their ambitions or build relationships, etc. But this is not the case - despite all its flaws Ilon Musk capable of great things. What he creates fully justifies the mistakes he has made. At the age of 46, he got more than he managed to lose - more successfully launched missiles, more cars created and more children he has to raise.
What lesson can I learn from this?
Think about this: if you are sure that in the future, even more roads will open up before you, then you have no reason to be sad about the lost opportunities. Regret should come to you only if you have already managed to lose more than you can achieve. The most important factor is probably the fact that you still believe in the possibility of achieving your goals. We need to convince ourselves that the window of opportunity is not yet closed. Think about the fact that our intuition is often mistaken about this - so far a critical period in learning has not been established. And this statement is true even in relation to the study of foreign languages. [8] Yes, most adult immigrants speak with an accent, but this does not apply to their age. It turns out that when you learn your first language, your parents speak with you in the “native” version of the language, which implies emphasizing precisely those sounds that are most difficult to distinguish. In addition, they are very patiently helping to speak the words for you. Probably, after we reach a certain age, we become impatient with ourselves. But this is our conscious choice. Perhaps no one foresees our mistakes, and at any age we could find a teacher patient with our failures. So does it make sense to look back and regret something? Yes, but only if you can find convincing evidence that it is because of your age that you can no longer fulfill your dreams.
Start small
Compared to what Ilon is doing now - designing electric cars, rockets and solar batteries - his first enterprises were ridiculously simple. He sold computer parts in his dorm room and even arranged a kind of underground bar from his home. Would he deal with all this if he knew for sure that ahead of him waiting for the design of electric cars? I think no. It seems that at that time, step by step, by touch, he was approaching his goal, having no idea how to approach her reddit .
What lesson can I learn from this?
If you are looking for a foothold for the start, then start with something, without even thinking about what exactly. In the end, it doesn’t matter where you started.
Money to start
Most people will say that they cannot start their startup due to lack of money. In his autobiography, Ilon Mask indicated the exact amount that was enough for him to take action. For two with brother Kimball, they received from father 28 thousand dollars, they also managed to find 6 thousand more, which were made by their mutual friend, Greg Kouri, who joined them as a co-founder of Zip2. [9]
Today, the sum of 34 thousand US dollars adjusted for inflation is 53 thousand. This amount was enough to open its office in Palo Alto. Mask and his brother had to sleep in the office, wash in the nearby YMCA building and follow a strict diet consisting entirely of fast food.
What lesson can I learn from this?
Would Ilon have backed away from his dream, had he not been in possession of 53 thousand dollars? Surely, in order to earn money, he would go to work somewhere in a coffee shop, where he would sleep, sitting on the couch. However, Anna seems incredible that if Ilona Mask had not had this amount, he would have refused all his plans. Do these 53,000 (or any other amount) play a huge role for you when deciding whether to start or quit all? Determine for yourself the minimum amount of initial capital.
Self-education through books
When Ilon Mask decided to devote himself to the cosmos, he probably understood that it would be nice to learn something about this very cosmos. He decided for himself that money alone (which he still didn’t have at the time), with the help of which companies producing rocket technology were financed, did not solve any problems. Many rich people have already done something similar many times: they simply invested fabulous sums in another space project and helplessly - due to their lack of engineering knowledge - they watched its inevitable fiasco. But not Ilon Musk. Jim Cantrell, an aerospace engineer who Ilon offered to collaborate back in 2001, said the following about Mask’s ability to learn: “He literally absorbs the knowledge and experience of the people around him. When we first started working in 2001, he asked me for all my records about the rocket engine, which I made back in college. ” [ten]
What lesson can I learn from this?
Knowledge became available. Knowledge will always be with you, and they do not burden you with their cargo. All books in libraries are free. Do not underestimate how much you can learn for yourself just by reading a book.
Mega-optimism, mega-promises and mega-deliveries
Ilona Mask had the same scheme for both SpaceX and Tesla: to promise the unthinkable; postpone several times the presentation of the promised; ultimately, present the upcoming product; give the word that soon this product will go on sale; postpone the product for sale several times; in the end, release a ready-made product that exceeds all expectations.
Being engaged in design, the author noted for herself that only two characteristics out of three can be inherent in the product being created: originality, speed of execution, low cost. It seems that Ilon Musk is not going to compromise with originality. At the same time, he definitely strives to make the product as less expensive as possible (thanks to him, the cost of launching rockets has decreased by 100 times, and the Model 3 costs only $ 25,000 including taxes). However, as far as speed, she doesn't even smell here: the Model X release, for example, was delayed for 3 years.
What lesson can I learn from this?
No need to treat yourself too strictly. In order to create something worthwhile, it takes some time. Yes, some people create prototypes of their products in just a few days, but it will still take some time before their prototypes become truly incredible.
The following graph briefly shows the history of Tesla through the eyes of the stock exchanges. It shows that the company's shares have not risen in value for several years, because Tesla could not boast of a profit. Shares of the company did not buy, despite the optimism of Ilon. When in April 2013, Ilon Mask first announced the profit, Tesla shares soared. You can also track the steps that Ilon Musk took, and how the company's shares rose in price.
How many attempts should be made?
Mask managed to carry out a successful launch of its space rocket only from the 4th time. And this number is negligible compared to how many attempts were made by its competitors and how much equipment was destroyed during their trial launches before they managed something like that.
The key difference between Mask and his competitors is that Ilon only had money for 4 launches, and if the 4th launch was unsuccessful, it would mean a complete collapse for him.
What lesson can I learn from this?
It is difficult to say that Ilona Mask was always lucky, considering SpaceX’s thorny path to success. You may be lucky more or less. You can compensate for the lack of luck with even more perseverance.
The image below shows all of Ilona’s successful attempts at launching missiles. It seems that the size of the rocket is directly proportional to the growing confidence in the Mask. However, even his path cannot be called ideal, as evidenced by 3 unsuccessful launches at the very beginning.
To not give up
“I'd rather make myself a seppuku than fail,” Mask once told one of his investors in order to receive financing. [11] This phrase perfectly characterizes Ilona: he can move slowly, but he will achieve the desired goal. He may delay the fulfillment of his promises, he may seem overly annoying, he may be dismissed from the established company, but he will never accept failure.
What lesson can I learn from this?
You will not fail if you do not give up. Why give up? Find the reasons for the failures and correct them.
__________
Most of the facts in this article were taken from the book by Ashley Vance “ Ilon Mask. Tesla, SpaceX and the road to the future . "
Ashley Vance, compatriot Ilona Mask and the author of his biography, written with the participation and not received final approval of the main character, describes in detail the main events in the life of Ilon: starting with the description of the grandparents Mask and up to 2015, when the book was released. Biography Ilona Mask written by Ashley Vance tries to convey to us the worldview of Ilona, ​​who is convinced that: employees very quickly become complacent;aerospace industry is not competitive and not independent; people involved in venture investment are short-sighted; the co-founders have lost any incentive to what they are doing; engineers are too pessimistic about their abilities. And despite this, Ilon Musk continues to devote at least 100 hours a week to work. His world view is easy to adopt, since it is optimistic in nature. However, after reading the book to the end, we can conclude that the author did not notice the most important thing when comparing Ilona Mask with Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg: they all just created some kind of product, while Ilon Musk is building the future.
Sources
1. In his interview with Kevin Rose, Ilon Musk spoke about his worldview.
2. Ilon Musk tweeted what he thought about the news about the intention of the Koch brothers, interested in the development of the oil industry, to spend $ 10 million on the development of a campaign against electric vehicles.
3. When asked about the relationship between him and his father, Ilon Musk declined to give a direct answer. His answer, which Vance posted in the 2nd chapter of his book, sounds more than two-fold:
“You can say for sure that my childhood was not happy,” says Musk. “Perhaps, if I tell you about my childhood, it will seem to you that it was happy, but this is not so. It cannot be said that nothing good happened to me at this time, but this time was not happy. It was filled with torment. My father knows how to make the life of others unbearable. He can defile any situation. He is an unhappy man. I do not know ... damn ... I do not know how people become like him. I'd rather not say anything more about him. ” Ilon and Justine swore that they would not allow their children to meet with Errol (father Ilona Mask).
4. Ilon realizes that his children will not have such a complicated childhood as he had. It bothers him. He does not know how to act in such a situation. In the last chapter of his book, the author quotes Ilona Mask: “What can I do? Specially come up with some difficulties for them? I do not know how I will do it. ”
5. The source code of the game Blastar was published in one of the magazines, so someone recreated it.
6. When Ilon Musk first said that he was going to establish his own rocket company, people did not take his words seriously. The 6th chapter of the book describes the memories of Robert Zubrin, the founder of the Mars Society: “At that time, everyone who listened to Ilona sighed and said that Musk would just spend hundreds of millions of dollars and, quite likely, he would fail, like everyone who tried do something like this before him. "
7. In Chapter 10, Vance writes that Musk, in his personal name, sent messages about price increases to Tesla Roadster buyers, who had already paid $ 92,000 for a car. Now the cost of the car started with 109 thousand dollars.
8. No one has yet proved that after a person reaches a certain age, he is no longer able to learn foreign languages, which is also described in the book Neuroscience, published by Sinauer Associates.
9. In the 4th chapter of his book, Vance writes: “Errol Mask gave his sons 28 thousand dollars, trying to help them in that difficult period of their lives. However, this money was barely enough to rent an office, buy a license for software and the necessary equipment. ”
10. Jim Cantrell, a member of the SpaceX team, left a comment on Quora about how Ilon Musk studied rocket science.
11. In Chapter 4 of the book “Ilon Musk,” Vance describes how Ilon told one of the venture capitalists something like the following: “My mentality is the samurai mentality. I'd rather make myself a seppuku than fail. ”
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/344730/
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