Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has become a hero to many aspiring entrepreneurs given his incredible record of success, but how does he do it?
South African-born Musk formed his first company, Zip2, at the tender age of 24, before selling it and working on what would become PayPal. With the money he made from selling PayPal to eBay, the entrepreneur started investing in other companies, writes Patrick Hankinson for Quartz.
Improve your productivity by following Elon Musk‘s example
Many people wonder how Musk has managed to work a reported 100 hours per week for 15 years. In fact there are a number of handy tricks that you can employ to supercharge your productivity.
Musk makes sure that he gets the most out of his time by batching tasks together, such as looking over spreadsheets and writing emails to people that need to know about those same numbers. Fit in a business meeting in your lunch break to boost productivity further.
Another tip is to focus your attention on improving your product, rather than marketing. “A lot of companies get confused, they spend money on things that don’t actually make the product better,” said Musk. The aim is to make a product so good that it sells itself, like the Tesla Model S.
The importance of team building
Another top tip is to make sure that you aren’t surrounded by “yes men.” Having your team agree with you on everything might stroke your ego in the short-term, but it could be disastrous for the long-term health of your business. As the man himself says, you should “constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.”
Musk ensures that his team are always prepared by expecting the highest level of engagement during meetings. Not only does this show their dedication, it also proves that Musk hires the best possible staff in order to make meetings as productive as possible.
Scheduling is of huge importance for ultra-productive people, and it starts from the moment you wake up. Building a routine helps to squeeze every ounce of productivity from your day, without wasting time.
Lastly it is essential that you develop the ability to differentiate between a risk and a calculated risk. Tesla almost went under before Musk invested nearly all of his personal wealth in the company, and look at it now. Try taking a leaf out of Musk’s book and mapping out the route to your goal to determine whether or not it is achievable.
