Top Lessons From Elon Musk's Biography by Walter Isaacson

With Elon Musk's new biography hitting the shelves last month, many Elon sleuths, aspiring founders, and stargazing creators have lined up to read it. While Elon is a very controversial and almost Machiavellian character in our era - it goes without saying the impact he has had on our society. From making electric cars a viable alternative, to inspiring projects like ChatGPT/OpenAI, and ushering an age where it will be normal to land on Mars. It goes without saying that Elon is a force to be reckoned with, and maybe we can learn from him and borrow some of his habits that could also work for us:

Elon's Habits (use at your own risk):

Delete, delete, delete - For most projects that he embarks on, Elon focuses a disproportionate amount of time on removing features or items that are not necessary. This forces one to think very deeply from first principles about the perfect design structure for the job which can save the most money, time, and have a very high chance of success.

Work very hard and play very hard - Elon has been found saying many times that working 70-80 hour weeks allows one to get 2-3x the amount of goals done than someone who is only working a standard 40-hour workweek. While this is true, it also comes with many costs including jeopardizing your health, your relationships, and is difficult to sustain in the long term. Elon combats this by also playing very hard as well, by doing things like playing the videogame Elden Ring until 5:30 am.

One singular focus and vision and a 20-year roadmap - It was very clear for Elon what he wanted to accomplish, even as he was in his early 20s. Elon's ultimate goal is to help us understand more about the universe so that we can be able to ask better questions that can help us better answer the question "What is the universe and what is our purpose in it?". While this seems very out of reach and SciFi, he found a way to backtrack and plan for it by first focusing on selling easier products to make some initial money such as with Zip2 and PayPal. He then knew that in order for us to be a space-faring society, we needed to master energy, and in particular renewables - so he founded Tesla. Fast forward to the present day and he is running SpaceX, a company whose mission is to make humanity multi-planetary. Find your 20+ year vision, and backtrack your way to make it worthwhile. And don't forget to shoot for the moon, because if you miss you will still land among the stars.

Learn to channel your inner Demon Mode if needed - It is noble and honorable to be a kind and generous individual. However, there are some points in time, where the stakes are very high, and where you need to tune your empathy down and focus ruthlessly on the logical facts, then have a deep determination to come out ahead without hopefully burning too many bridges. It is this get-stuff-done attitude at all costs that enabled him to have such big wins in his life.

Live like you only have $1,000 in your account this month - Even after making $180 Million from his PayPal exit, Elon still managed to live frugally and live off of friend's couches. Most of his energy and attention was focused on his next venture. There is some wisdom in there. You don't have to live like a monk but you should probably re-evaluate if what you are spending your time and money on is truly aligned on your singular goal.

Forget about stability and balance and embrace chaos, uncertainty, and do things that might scare you but move you closer to your goals. Sometimes it is the things that scare us that are the #1 areas that need attention for us to grow.

Be fearless and put yourself in positions to act fearlessly this will build up your courage even more - From a very early age dealing with bullies and an adverse environment, he learned that he needed to act in a fearless way in order to get what he wants. This skill is one of the most important to master because only by being fearless we can start to embark on bold journeys that will create paradigm shifts in our lives. Start small, and build this muscle up.