The 69 Core Musk Methods
These were selected as some of the fundamental ideas that make Elon and his companies successful. They have been edited or paraphrased into short, memorable maxims.
You are capable of more than you think.
It’s possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary.
You can teach yourself anything. Read widely; talk to experts.
Assume you’re wrong. Aspire to be less wrong.
Internalize responsibility.
If we don’t make stuff, there is no stuff.
Creating products and services creates wealth.
A useful life is worth having lived.
Don’t aspire to glory; aspire to work.
Take actions that increase the odds of the future being good.
Every day, we either increase the rate of innovation or it slows down.
Work on what is just becoming possible.
Don’t wait for the world to want it. If it should obviously exist, go build it.
Build what no one else is building.
As you move forward, allies will assemble around you.
Prototypes are proof.
Start somewhere, question assumptions, and adapt to reality.
Reason from fundamentals, not from what others are doing.
“The magic-wand number.” See the theoretically perfect and work toward it.
“Know the idiot index.” Understand the cost of components.
The Algorithm: Question Requirements → Try to Delete the Part or Process → Simplify → Accelerate → Automate.
For critical items, have meetings every twenty-four hours to run The Algorithm and check progress from yesterday.
Stay as close to the actual work as possible. Do not separate yourself from the pain of your decisions.
All requirements should be treated as recommendations.
The only fixed laws are the laws of physics.
The best part is no part; the best process is no process.
Simplicity creates both reliability and low cost.
Find the design necessity of every part and every process.
Overdelete and add back the absolutely necessary.
Push for radical breakthroughs.
Be proactive. You will never win unless you take charge of setting the strategy.
A maniacal sense of urgency is our operating principle.
A factory moving at twice the speed of another factory is basically equivalent to two factories.
Attack the bottleneck. If you have 9,999 things that are working and one that isn’t, that one sets the overall production rate.
You’ll move as fast as your least-lucky or least-competent supplier.
Do things in parallel.
Give teams one key metric to focus on. Video games without a score are boring.
Separating design, engineering, and manufacturing is a recipe for dysfunction.
Speed of innovation is what matters.
Beat competitors on speed, quality, and cost, not anticompetitive behavior.
Test the absurd. When something seems impossible, ask: “What would it take?”
Money is not the constraint. Exceptional engineers are.
Get everyone thinking like the chief engineer.
Get a clear, direct feedback loop with reality.
Always be smashing your ego. Ensure ability > ego.
Ask, “Is this effort resulting in a better product or service?” If not, stop.
Good taste is learnable. Train yourself to notice what makes something beautiful.
Physics doesn’t care about hurt feelings. Make the rocket fly.
Empathy is not an asset.
Use simple, clear, humble terms.
Go directly to the source of information.
When hiring, look for evidence of exceptional ability.
Combine engineering and financial fluency.
To truly lead the product, lead the company.
Lead from the front. Sleep on the factory floor.
Physically move yourself to wherever the problem is immediately.
All bad news should be given loudly and often. Good news can be said quietly and once.
Failure is essentially irrelevant unless it is catastrophic.
Fear of failure is the biggest cause of failure.
Feel the fear and do it anyway.
Double down. Push your chips back in.
Work like hell. Like every waking hour. Go ultra hardcore.
Make sure you really care about what you’re doing—and take the pain.
We should not be afraid of doing something important just because some amount of tragedy is likely to occur.
When something is important enough, do it even if the odds are not in your favor.
Don’t ever give up. You'd have to be dead or completely incapacitated.
Play life like a game.
Go ultra hardcore.
Humor is a differentiator.