Originally published on EVANNEX.
Much has been written about Elon Musk’s use of the scientific method and first principles thinking. Oftentimes, Musk is pigeon-holed as a hyper-logical, robotic decision maker. Not true. It’s a misperception that doesn’t align with Musk’s real-world experience at his companies, SpaceX and Tesla. In contrast, Elon Musk displays a boldly wild imagination and high tolerance for risk.
Inside Starship cargo bay. Header tanks mounted in tip of nosecone to offset engine weight at rear. pic.twitter.com/EJSwqMCooA
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 1, 2019
Why can’t Boeing and Lockheed Martin catch up with Musk’s SpaceX? Inc.’s Bill Murphy writes, “The most powerful threat to greatness isn’t evil. It’s mediocrity.” He reveals a quote from Elon Musk: “There’s a tremendous bias against taking risks. Everyone is trying to optimize their ass-covering.” Murphy points out a critical lesson for these old-guard aerospace giants scrambling to compete with SpaceX: “Don’t optimize your ass-covering. Instead, optimize your opportunities.”
 SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Screenshot from Tesla video, modified by CleanTechnica. |
One could define risk tolerance as, “the degree of variability in outcomes that a founder is willing to withstand.” Consider a few more Elon Musk quotes. On failing: “Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.” On odds: “When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.” On going all-in: “It’s OK to have your eggs in one basket as long as you control what happens to that basket.”
Above: NBA icon Kobe Bryant recounts a few lessons distilled from his recent conversation with Elon Musk (YouTube: CNBC)
Along with risk-taking, Elon Musk emphasizes the importance of imagination. When CNBC asked NBA legend Kobe Bryant about his conversation with Musk, Bryant says: “I buy into Elon… The amount of research, the amount of study he does is unheard of. But he’ll always say the most important thing is imagination. You can learn anything that you want to learn. You can study all these things that you have in a book, but if you don’t have the imagination and then take it to another level, it doesn’t mean anything.”
Tesla Smart Summon Tests Show Oodles Of Laughter (10 Videos) https://t.co/DqlnkMaDUz pic.twitter.com/yHpsF2TKnh
— CleanTechnica (@cleantechnica) September 30, 2019
Analyzing Tesla, Huffington Post contributor Anurag Harsh writes that Elon Musk is: “exploring new ways of thinking about how we harness energy and affect the world around us. Aside from his brilliant [leadership in] technology, that is what Elon Musk brings to the table that other tech titans fail to do … he is dominating market share through the power of imagination, much like Steve Jobs did.
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