The pertinent info. from Chad Grills’s article, The 30 Point Checklist to Accelerate Your Learning, start here:
Musk’s story is one of hustle and tenacity. There will always be defeats, setbacks, and challenges. The courage you need to overcome them will not manifest itself until your back is against the wall.
The imagination you need to win will not spring forth until you’re personally invested in your pursuits.
Don’t be afraid to put your back against the wall and invest in yourself and those you care about.
Life is a battle, and Musk’s story is one powerful reminder to start from the bottom and never accept defeat.
Here is the Elon Musk inspired 30 point checklist for accelerated learning.
- Be yourself to the point where you get picked on and bullied.
- If you’re interested in something, binge on it, become obsessed, addicted, and then pull yourself out and get clean.
- Drop out of college or drop back in if it makes sense.
- Move from your hometown and travel the world.
- Ask your family for help (it’s the only way you’ll discover how much they care).
- Humble yourself and stay at a youth hostel or camp if you have to.
- Practice living on $2 a day to remove your fear of poverty.
- Cold call or cold contact anyone you need to.
- Become personable and develop the ability to build trust and rapport with those you connect with in person. The real world matters.
- Try many different jobs. If you have to, go to the unemployment office and get started doing anything.
Read the rest of the list here…
Also check out…
Some of my favorite from Garin Kilpatrick’s post:
30 of Elon Musk’s Best Secrets of Success
4. Take Risks
Elon recommends taking risks when you are still young as obligations only increase over time.
“Once you have a family it gets much harder to do things that might not work out.”
It’s worth keeping in mind that Elon started SpaceX and Tesla with a young family so his family obligations have certainly not slowed him down.
With greater risks, such as those needed to carve out a new niche, comes the potential for far greater rewards.
Musk poured so much of his money into SpaceX and Tesla that he had to borrow money from friends to cover his living expenses.
However the risk of pouring his money into those companies paid off.
Today SpaceX, Tesla, and Solar City are thriving and Elon is several billion dollars wealthier than he was before.
15. Be Extremely Tenacious
Here is a definition Google gave me for the word Tenacious: Adjective Not readily relinquishing a position, principle, or course of action; determined.
The determination to keep going when the going gets tough is what saved SpaceX and Tesla when both were on the verge of bankruptcy.
Elon poured all of his money from the sale of PayPal into these companies so they could survive and his tenacity in doing so saved them from insolvency.
The perseverance and hard work Elon has shown in making every company he has worked with a success reminds me of this quote from Steve Jobs:
I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.
22. Never Give Up
The SpaceX Falcon 1 launch vehicle made it through the first and most most dangerous stage – the one where it actually breaks away from Earth’s gravitational pull.
But the rocket faltered soon after and they lost communication. That was it: the mission failed.
The 300+ SpaceX employees in attendance were heartbroken – and fearing for their very livelihoods – when Musk stepped up to speak to the crowd.
Elon revealed that he had already secured further investment in SpaceX so they would be able to continue their mission in case of complications.
At the climax of his speech, he told his employees not what they should do, but what he was going to do: “For my part, I will never give up,” Musk said, “and I mean never.”
SpaceX’s very next launch was a complete success.
On September 28th, 2008 the Falcon 1 became the first privately built rocket to achieve earth orbit.
“Persistence is very important. You should not give up unless you are forced to give up.”