Here’s one of the most common questions I get asked:
“What is Maverick?”
According to Dictionary.com, a maverick is a lone dissenter, as an intellectual, an artist, or a politician, who takes an independent stand apart from his or her associates. Therefore, a Maverick is a nonconformist, an individualist; a free thinker and a loner.
If by any chance you are rebellious in nature or like to disrupt conventional policies or ideas, chances are that you are a Maverick!
So when we Add “Think” to the word Maverick to make up Think Maverick, we literally want every individual here at thinkmaverick.com to Think Like A Maverick!
Why Think Like A Maverick?
The World’s Best Entrepreneurs, Artists, Actors, Actresses and Athletes are Maverick Thinkers…. Just think about it!
- Steve Jobs wouldn’t have made a comeback after being kicked out of his own very own company…
- Bill Gates, Will Smith, Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan, Bruce Lee, Anthony Robbins…. Just To name a few.
I won’t go into details here as I’ve dedicated a special article on “So what is a Maverick?”
Among all the successful Maverick Thinkers, Elon Musk intrigued me the most. That’s the MAIN reason why we choose Elon Musk – the world’s most maverick billionaire as our ThinkMaverick Magazine Logo on Itunes!
I truly believe Elon Musk is a Game Changer for your business and dreams.
If you believe he is, the price of admission to get to the top of your game is just a few minutes of your time.
Follow my series as we unravel the secrets to his universe.
Day 1: How to Stay Motivated Like Elon Musk
Day 2: How to Learn Like Elon Musk: 4 Tips to learn faster and better than everyone else
Day 3: Elon Musk Leadership Model: 5 Tips to Manage an Effective Team for Your Business
Day 4: Elon Musk’s Advice for Starting a Business
Day 5: How Elon Musk Overcomes Challenges
Day 6: How to Work as Hard as Elon Musk in a World of Lazy Dreamers
Day 7: How Elon Musk Work 100 hours a Week
Day 8: 9 things I learned from Elon Musk
1. Take Risks:
Businesses do survive only on a certain sense of risk-taking. Even if you have got it right the first hundred times, it doesn’t mean that the hundred and first effort would be a default success.
Cultivate this calculated risk-taking habit in any business that you go for. It can depend upon a variety of factors and dynamics, but there always comes a stage in any business that the next step would be a risky affair.
Effervescent businesses of the current generation have always taken out a risk in their prime. Look at the pros and cons take a calculated risk as much as possible in your ventures.
But Not Elon Musk…
“Take decisions now and work towards to make that decision right”. Musk’s attitude and his bold belief in his intuitions seem to be paying off every time. This uncanny ability to predict something and work towards is something that can be learned only from Musk.
No matter how high the odds were stacked up against him, Elon made sure that he took the risk to meet it head-on. The very fact that he invested his entire earnings of a deal to in SpaceX and TESLA should speak volumes about his risk-taking capabilities.
2. Multitask:
In the present day scenario, in addition to being a hard worker, you should also be a smart worker. The only way to achieve this is through multitasking and to juggle betweeen your priorities.
Right now, a business owner cannot afford to take his time to complete a job and move on to the next. Where time is money; every second that a person uses to multi-task can contribute towards to the general growth of his company in the long run.
Musk developed this eccentric pattern of working long hours and multi-tasking right from his childhood days. For instance, one of his favorite methods to work is by managing emails while playing with his kids.
For a brief part of his life, Musk has stated in an interview, that he used to work for 100 hours per week. He later reduced it, but still manages to put in about 80- 90 hours per week.
Though a work schedule this intense can affect your work- life balance, never shy away from putting as-many-hours needed for your overall growth.
3. Put The Society First:
Entrepreneurship or running a successful business is not just about keeping the investors happy. It is also fair to say that you can give something back to the society you live in and be a part of its growth.
When you have a product that can be beneficial to others, try to share it rather than monetizing it. Of course, this requires an outrageous spirit to even envision something like this, but these things do happen – Like how Musk did it!
Musk’s design and patent for TESLA models are free for all and everyone can have access to it. He believes in the betterment of the world and he doesn’t mind if someone does it even better than him.
Musk is also a part of many Y-Combinators, helping out countless budding entrepreneurs and potential industrialists. He also plays an active part in many forums.
4. Odds Are Just A Barrier:
This is exactly what the insight of the business should be and the obstacles you overcome should become a part of it. In many cases, young entrepreneurs often make the mistake of not getting the final target into the picture.
This is completely in the wrong sense!
Elon’s practical approach to any business activity is constantly centered on the final outcome. He is also well aware of the barriers that he needs to face in the expedition.
He believes that if something is important enough, even if the odds are stacked against the outcome, you should still pursue them- no matter what. He is of the firm view that odds are just a barrier- a stepping stone, which temporarily withholds and this should never be a hindrance to find your final objective.
This exact zeal of his is what is making possible- his dream of populating Mars when everyone else was looking the other way and said that it cannot be done.
5. Control Your Eggs:
Some of Elon Musk’s thinking goes way against the conventionally accepted wisdom in many cases. Maybe, that’s what establishes what he is now!
One of the classic business rules states that never put all your eggs in one basket. You need to hold some of them back in case your business suffers a loss.
This practical wisdom has been followed for centuries and while the fact of its truthiness can never be questioned, Musk had a different plan.
Elon’s strategy is to put all the eggs in one basket. However, he would want us to have absolute control over that basket.
Entrepreneurship is not a risk as many people think. As a matter of fact, it is exactly the opposite version.
A good entrepreneur does not learn from his/her mistakes. They learn it by facing difficult problems and solving them and not by failing in them.
Your actions create the outcome of any business and if you have absolute control of the intricacies, then you can afford to go big.
6. Take Feedback Loops:
This is a continuation of the above point and this talks about real feedback from real customers. Feedbacks can be in the form of either criticism or praise.
As an entrepreneur, you have to learn to take them both in your strides. Always acknowledge the praise and concentrate on the criticism part.
Assume there are 100 people in a room and there is no guarantee that all the 100 people would be in favor of your product. Some may like it while some may not due to genuine reasons. Concentrate on them.
Elon’s life is laden with many incidents where has come face to face with negative reviews and criticism. He takes them on with a stride and works on them.
Elon even faced criticism from Neil Armstrong who hinted that private companies in space can lead to a diminished US dominance in space flights. However, Elon believes exactly the opposite would occur and it would make America self-sufficient and reduce the dependency on other countries.
So “criticism” and “feedbacks” are in a way about how you take it. In one case Elon actually spent time for hours together where a young customer had something new to offer about a product. Talk about the humility of the man!
Criticisms are a part and parcel of any entrepreneur’s life. Never get discouraged by it and accept the feedback like a pro.
7. Find New Ways to Sell:
It is true that the conventional and time-tested advertisement methods are always a good medium to sell your product. But in the 21st century, you need to be a little more modernized than that.
One look at “Tesla” and you know that the word unconventional has got a new meaning of its own.
Elon employed a unique marketing strategy for “Tesla” and that is no marketing at all. He found the spot where people were obsessed with and let the product speak for itself.
For example, Tesla is a futuristic car and people were always passionate about future technologies. So he let his car do the talking and people came in droves to buy a piece of the future.
Elon was able to capitalize of humanity’s intrigue with future technologies. This is a smart marketing maneuver that has worked to the rock.
A good marketing strategy is always needed for any brand. So create that unique brand and market it in such a way that the crowd will follow. Always believe in the power of smart marketing!
8. Be a rare breed in your industry:
Big ideas have a tendency to generate a lot of attention. The world is on the constant lookout for such things.
What matters is how you go about delivering those ideas to the planet.
There were people who have made efforts into private space exploration and people who have made strides in electric batteries. So what difference does Musk makes in these fields that set him apart?
The answer lies right there in the point below.
It was never about making money to Elon and Musk flamboyantly admits that he would never underestimate the competition he has. Musk believes and wants someone to build the product better than him.
This attitude is certainly a rarity in the world where every competitor tries to overtake you, given a chance.
One classic example would be that his designs and the workings of TESLA are open sources and anyone could access them. He simply wants to make the world a better place to live with better products.
No matter what you start or how far you perform, have this notion to differentiate yourselves from others. In many instances, this single factor would come to define you and the company you represent.
9. Sacrifices Need To Be Made:
Your start of an entrepreneurship journey is like delivering a baby. You need to nurture it, feed it and guide it to enable it to stand on its own.
You have to be at the core of the journey throughout and naturally, you cannot do that unless you are willing to make certain sacrifices of your own.
Any business requires a certain amount of sacrifice and higher the goals are, the higher the sacrifices.
Needless to say, Elon’s success was not achieved without a string of sacrifices. Being the founder of not one but two billion dollar companies would certainly have its toll.
You need to look out for only the basic necessities and forego the rest. This can be your friends, relations, your own personal time and anything in between.
Justine Musk, ex-wife of Elon candidly admits that her ex-husband always has the business cells running in his blood even while he was at home. It seemed that he never had time for a real relationship and his actual love was in his business.
Though this doesn’t mean that you have to forego any relationship, the idea is that sometimes you have to be ready for sacrifices to be made. There never is and never will be a winner without some sacrifices.
10. Learn Delegation:
One of the biggest mistakes first time entrepreneurs make is micromanaging. It is a concept where they actively foresee every aspect of the organization and make decisions.
While micromanaging can work on different levels, in a big organization the process simply puts you at a disadvantage. Every day-to-day affair has to need your approval and your endorsement would be required for every mundane activity.
While this might sound perfect and seems like things can never go wrong under circumstances, this is exactly where things will go haywire.
Musk states that you can be involved in all aspects of your organization only at a colossal level and never at an active level. This is the exact reason why you have one-downs who would be sharing your burden.
Musk believes in delegation but he has a control over how and when it is done. By this way, he can concentrate on much more pressing issues rather than issues which his peers could have taken care of.
Delegation is the backbone of any organization. It is perfectly normal to oversee every aspect initially. However, as the time progresses it is the best interest to delegate some of your work.
Over to You!
Do you have any tips and strategies that I didn’t mention in this post?
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This is day 4 of 8 Days of Maverick Success Tips from Elon Musk.
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