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
Elon Musk -The billionaire Iron Man
To an average citizen, Elon Musk is an entrepreneur, an investor, and an engineer. To the intellectuals, he is an Inventor. However, if you take the entire humanity part into account, Elon Musk is simply making plans to prolong our kind into the next 2000 years. This is the guy who has famously quoted that he plans to die on Mars and that is not by crash landing.
While we were busy debating the effective means of transportation, here is a guy who was planning to travel from point A to Point B in a tick with “Hyperloop”. While we were still analyzing the best fuel for future cars, he launched out “Tesla”.
While the world was still grasping for the most secure payment services, he came up with “PayPal”. While we are still trying to really grasp rocket science, he is trying to make reusable rockets with “SpaceX”. He is also associated with SolarCity, OpenAI, Neuralink and The Boring Company.
What is it that ticks inside Elon Musk that makes him what he is?
Is it his determination?
Is it his will-power or grit?
Or is it the strength of his intellectual mind?
What if it is something more?
The answer to all of those above lies in one single statement that he made. “I do not know when to give up” – When asked by an interviewer on his past failures. That is the epitome of the man we know as Elon Musk.
The guy was horrifically broke in 2010 and yet fast forward to the present; we have the population cataloging his achievements and praising his successes. It is not like he triumphed from the day one.
He had undergone countless hardships in his entrepreneurial journey. As a matter of fact, he had experienced hardships even while at school. So what did it take to get the inspiration and made him do the laudable things which he does?
What is his secret mantra that makes him pump up?.
Here are some of Elon Musk’s top success secret recipes which every entrepreneur or business owner should definitely take note of.
How to Stay Motivated Like Elon Musk
1. The Tough Gets Going:
Every new venture has its own set of complexities and convolutions but these should never be the reasons to quit and ease back. Taking the reins and driving the business through its rough time makes all the difference between the venture hitting a jackpot or washing down the drain.
This problem plagued Elon Musk too – rather early in his life…
As a fresher in school, Musk was a subject of constant bullying and taunting by his seniors. Young Musk had only two options in front of him- Buckle up and hit back or get over to a corner and cuddle up. Well, Musk chooses the third option.
He opted to vent out his anger in books. Every time he felt the depression and the feeling of hopelessness building up he headed out to the library and immersed himself in books. The escape mechanism soon turned out to be a passion. He slowly graduated to computers and business ultimately.
Young Musk has found his new obsession. He became a self-learner and started out his first venture when he was at age of 17. The company was then named as Zip2 Corporation, which was then acquired later.
No matter what the audacities he faced in life, Musk always found a medium to get better than before. He was bankrupt for a good part of his life and when any sane person would have opted to look for security and protection, Elon Musk took a gamble with SpaceX and Tesla. The result as the world knows is quite different.
2. Pursuit Relentlessly:
Constantly set benchmarks to yourself. That is the only way to be the best in the race.
170 million dollars should make anyone set for life – It can even settle up their future generations. But not Elon Musk. While everyone would have made plans to settle up with that bucket load of cash, Elon made plans to invest in his venture, which was considered taboo in those times- space travel and Electric Cars.
His insatiable appetite for knowledge and finding perfection has taken him altogether to a different league.
People who have tried to stop him found themselves at the receiving end many times. He takes his passion seriously and he is willing to take extreme steps to make his passion into a reality.
This is the major qualification which sets him apart from other budding entrepreneurs. Pursue your zeal and the commitment which you have set yourself no matter what the odds are.
3. Establish Possibility:
Taking the curve from the previous point, once your objective or goal has been set, step into the next level. This is the level where you establish the possibility that it can be achieved – even hypothetically.
Probability in any aspect can mean that there is a chance that you can meet the final target. There! your business just got promoted itself from an iota of a dream to something, which may be probable now.
For Elon, he faced this dilemma when he was on the lookout for a game-changing product. In his own words, he thought that time machine was next to impossible; so let’s start with the next revolutionary thing, which was like getting a battery operated car that changes the very definition of a battery-powered car.
Musk thinks that every problem or a goal is a simple combination of probabilities versus possibilities. So always ascertain a possibility! The probability factor would come into place all by itself.
4. The Goal is Never About Making Money:
Elon was a millionaire by the time he was 28. His proceeds from PAYPAL when it was taken over by e-Bay were around 180 million.
Musk, in one interview, has said that after dividing his money and on the verge of bankruptcy, he was forced to live and pay rents on personal loans.
Though some might argue that these acts were outrageous and show his gamble, it can never be questioned that he stood for what he believed in- more than the money!
Young entrepreneurs should pursue excellence and not the riches. With excellence comes success and with success comes the cash flow. Stand for what you want to achieve- not for monetary purposes but for yourself.Click To Tweet
Changing the way we live and think has a more valid point than bucket loads of cash on any given day. In the end, as Elon says- “The goal was never about making money with TESLA and SpaceX”
5. Have Fear:
Never believe the person who says that he/she is immune to fear. The same can be said about a business environment too.
Elon Musk too shares his quota of fear. In fact, he once quoted in an interview that he is really working on his fear levels as they constantly keep frying up his nervous systems.
According to him, having small bouts of fear can generally be good for a company. It can help the person plan better and take decisions after due considerations.
Elon faced his biggest fears of bankruptcy during the time when he invested his last dollars into TESLA and SpaceX. The fear undoubtedly prompted him to act better and to deliver better. The result as we all know is history.
Fear of failure is something which every young entrepreneur should accept. More pros and cons can be gauged out through this and when the statistics are in balance, better choices could be made out for the future of the organization.
Over to You!
What motivates you? Do you have any tips and strategies that I didn’t mention in this post?
If you liked this post, don’t forget to share it on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter.
This is day 1 of 8 Days of Maverick Success Tips from Elon Musk.
If you are interested in learning more about my entrepreneurial journey, Check out this ThinkMaverick Magazine App.
If you ever want tips please follow my Instagram page and ask away.
Coming Up Next
Discover more LIFEHACKS from the Man behind the Iron Musk in this Special Featured Issue. Get the Free Promo Code to Subscribe to the Magazine for Free here.
