What Elon Musk Can Teach Us About Business Success (The Good, The Bad & The Ugly)

Jun 1

"When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor." -Elon Musk

Born in South Africa (like Julie), Elon Musk transformed from a quiet, bullied child into a globally-recognized millionaire before he turned thirty. His orientation towards the future and shaping what it will look like cause some people to call him a "thrillionaire."

Thrillionaires are wealthy individuals who seek adventure and push boundaries with their philanthropic and profit-driven work. Check out this cool article on thrillionaires.

There are many lessons to be learned from Musk’s adventures (and misadventures) in the business world.

Here are a few of our faves:

Following Elon Musk's example

From bouncing back from failure to rethinking urban traffic patterns, Elon and his business acumen were evident long before he was a billionaire. He has always known that failure, patience, and optimism are essential when instigating change and approaching society's largest challenges.

Failure as an option: Elon describes failure as an option and as an indicator of innovation. As business owners, failure is part of the process and can signal that your organization is taking risks. Elon also explained that patience is essential. The SpaceX rocket iteration process has required extreme patience and tolerance of failure. Sometimes, long-term success requires a bit of short-term failure first.

Demanding more: His belief in innovation and developing better, more efficient processes drive him. Back in 2016, Elon was furious about the Los Angeles traffic he was stuck in and knew traffic issues could be mitigated. The Boring Company, founded by Elon, aims to innovate tunnel technology to engineer more efficient traffic systems. Elon saw that something could be done a better way and believed it was important enough to act on. Owning a business often means shifting processes and finding more effective ways of solving problems. The Boring Company is just one example of Elon’s experience with that.

Change or disaster: Part of owning a business means navigating and initiating change. Elon once said that change needs to be embraced, "if the alternative is disaster." The most effective business owners have feedback loops that help them identify ways to improve and ways their companies could change. Both external and internal change are inevitable in a business and owners must be prepared to tackle them.

Avoiding Elon's mistakes

Committed to changing the world, if not saving it, Elon Musk's leadership path has been unique and shows how devoted he is to turning his visions into reality. He is undeniably an influential leader, but his communication skills and commitment to his employees are perhaps a little more questionable.

Leadership style: Elon's expectations of his staff were extremely high at times. As you know, owning a business means caring for your team in a way that’s a win for you all. Elon is often described as prioritizing the pace of his business' development over supporting his employees. Fiercely committed to innovating in ways that will brighten the future of humankind on Earth (and Mars), Elon seems to value progress perhaps above everything else - but maybe if he didn’t he wouldn’t have achieved so much. Still, any business can only go as fast as its employees! Finding a balance between business priorities and employee needs is difficult for even the most experienced business owner!

Communication fumbles: As you no doubt know Elon also has a history of using Twitter to cause confusion and chaos. Specifically in 2020, he tweeted that Tesla's stock price was too high and Tesla stock prices dropped 10%. Intentional and strategic communication is important for all business owners, but in this case Elon’s rash tweet confused his allies and sent Tesla's stock prices plummeting. Considering the impact of both verbal and digital communication is imperative these days, a lesson that Musk still needs to learn.

Elon Musk and his thrillionaire mentality has undoubtedly pushed the envelope, expanding what innovators thought was possible. In addition to learning about Musk's business background, take a look at this blog post about lessons from New York City's tourism marketing rebrand.