Elon Musk’s 5 Rules for Creating a Company
1. Work Super Hard
Depending upon how well you want to do,
particularly if you are starting a company,
you need to work super hard.
When starting a first company, instead of getting an apartment,
you might just rent a small office, sleep on the couch,
shower at the YMCA, and share one computer.
You should be working every waking hour, seven days a week.
If you do the simple math, if somebody else is working 50 hours
and you are working 100 hours,
you will get twice as much done in the course of a year
as the other company.
2. Create a Great Product or Service
You must make sure that whatever you are doing
is a great product or service.
If you are entering a new or untapped market,
the standard is slightly lower.
However, if you are entering an existing marketplace
against large entrenched competitors,
your product or service needs to be much better than theirs.
It cannot be just a little bit better,
because from the perspective of the consumer,
they are always going to buy the trusted brand unless
there is a big difference.
Many entrepreneurs come up with something that
is only slightly better, but it must be a lot better to succeed.
3. Attract Great People
If you are creating a company or joining one,
the most important thing is to attract great people.
Either join an amazing group that you really respect,
or if you are building a company, you have to gather great people.
A company is simply a group of people that have gathered
together to create a product or service.
The success of the company will be determined
by how talented and hardworking that group is,
and the degree to which they are cohesively
focused in a good direction.
4. Focus on Signal Over Noise
A lot of companies get confused and spend money on things
that do not actually make the product better.
You must focus on signal over noise.
For example, Tesla never spent any money on advertising;
all of the money went into research and development,
manufacturing, and design to try to make the car as good as possible.
For any given company, continually ask if the efforts people
are expending result in a better product or service.
If they are not, you need to stop those efforts immediately.
5. Take Risks Now
When you are young, it is the time to take risks.
As you get older, your obligations increase.
Once you have a family, you start taking risks not just for yourself,
but for your family as well, making it much harder
to pursue things that might not work out.
Now is the time to do that before you have those heavy obligations.
You should take risks now and do something bold,
because you will not regret it.
