5 STEPS TO START A COMPANY BY ELON MUSK

1.   WORK SUPER HARD

I think the first is depending on how well you want to do and particularly if you're starting a company you need to work super hard so what does super hard mean well when my brother and I were starting our first company instead of getting an apartment we just rented a small office and we slept on the couch and we showered at the YMCA and we had just one computer so the website was up to during the day and I was coding at night seven days a week all the time work hard like every waking hour, that's the thing I would say. I would say if you're particularly if you're starting a company and I mean if you do simple math say like okay if somebody else is working 50 hours and you're working 100 you'll get twice as much done in the course of a year as the other company.

 

2.   THE RIGHT PRODUCT

I think two is you've got to make sure that you whatever you're doing is a great product or service it has to be really great and I go back to what I was saying earlier where if you're a new the company I mean unless it's like some new industry or new market, that if it's an untapped market then you have more ability to the standard is lower for your product service but if you're entering anything where there's an existing marketplace against large entrenched competitors then your product or service needs to be much better than theirs, it can't be a little bit better because then you put yourself in the shoes of the consumer and they say why would you buy it as a consumer you're always going to buy the trusted brand unless there's a big difference so a lot of times entrepreneur will come up with something which is only slightly better and it's not, it can't just be slightly better it's got to be a lot better.

 

3.   HIRE GREAT PEOPLE

The other thing I'd say is that if you're creating a company or if you're joining a company the most important thing is to attract great people so either joins a group that's amazing that you really respect or if you're building a company you've got to gather great people I mean all the company is a group of people that have gathered together to create a product or service and so depending upon how talented and hardworking that group is and the greater which they are focused cohesively in a good direction that will determine the success of the company so do everything you can to gather great people if you're creating a company.

 

4.   SIGNAL OVER NOISE

Then I'd say focus on signal over noise a lot of companies get confused they spend money on things that don't actually make the product better so for example at Tesla we've never spent any money on the advertising we've put all of the money into R&D and manufacturing and design to try to make the car as good as possible and that's the way to go so for any given company just keep thinking about are these efforts that people are expending are they resulting in a better product or service if they're not stop those efforts.

 

5.   TAKE RISKS NOW

I think the final thing I would encourage you to do is now is the time to take a risk. You don't have kids but like you, as you get older your obligations increase and once you have a family you start taking a risk not just for yourself but for your family as well it gets much harder to do things that might not work out so now is the time to do that before you have those obligations so I would encourage you to take risks now do something bold you won't regret you.

                                                            -ELON MUSK-