Elon Musk is a polarising figure.
On one hand there’s the Devout.
The Musk fans who believe he’s a genius who’ll save humanity by colonising Mars while saving earth with electric vehicles.
On the other, there’s the Haters.
The people who think he’s a narcissistic workaholic who is running a ponzi scheme with a penchant for drugs.
The problem both these groups run into is when you judge someones personality you are very unlikely to learn anything from them.
And you can learn something from everyone, even what not to do.
Having never met him I have no clue who he is as a person but I pay attention to billionaires with repeated success across multiple domains and massive ambition to do things no one has done before.
You know, ‘success’.
A recent article in the WSJ had a small insight into the mental models he has used to build multiple billion dollar companies.
“Mr. Musk said his actions and rapid decision-making can be misunderstood as erratic behavior. “It is better to make many decisions per unit time with a slightly higher error rate, than few with a slightly lower error rate,” he said last weekend in a series of emails with The Wall Street Journal, “because obviously one of your future right decisions can be to reverse an earlier wrong one, provided the earlier one was not catastrophic, which they rarely are.”
This is SO important.
The opportunity cost of not making decisions is hidden to most people.
The chronically indecisive are also the chronically frustrated.
They can’t see by not making a decision they are not opening doors that will reveal other doors.
“If the odds are probably in your favor, you should make as many decisions as possible within the bounds of what is executable,” Mr. Musk said in emails to the Journal. “This is like being the house in Vegas. Probability is the most powerful force in the universe, which is why the house always wins. Be the house.”
This is the problem.
You can’t calculate odds if you aren’t sitting at the table and playing the game.
Most people aren’t playing the game.
They are sitting on the sideline watching others play and judging them, while waiting for some perfect conditions or a sign that never arrives.
If you’re sitting on your hands – do something.
One thing.
Anything.
Make a decision.
Get in the game.
Be the house.
