drop below a certain threshold of sleep, although I would be awake more hours I would get less done because my mental acuity would be affected.”

“I find if I don’t get enough sleep I’m quite grumpy. “The right number for me is around 6 to 6.5 hours per night,” says he. Musk makes a point of getting just the right amount of sleep - too much means lost time, but too little means lost productivity. I also take them with me when I go out of town.” I have the kids for slightly more than half the week and spend a fair bit of time with them. He does make time for his five sons, taking them along on his rounds of the various Tesla and SpaceX facilities, and on an annual camping trip. Elon says he has cut back his famous 100-hour work weeks to a mere 80 or 90 hours, but the extent of his work commitments surely leaves little time for the sort of recreational and family-related activities that most of us take for granted. A recent article in Quartz details Musk’s formidable daily schedule. Of course, great achievement does not come solely from following a set of principles, however wise - it also involves great sacrifice. “It’s just that I think this is a very important problem and it’s got to get solved, and if we don’t solve it we’re in trouble.”Ībove: Time to get some Elon Bucks (Instagram: carolinebpark) “This is not about wealth accumulation for me personally,” Musk told PBS in 2008. If you get that right, money will follow. Perhaps the most important principle of all: Don’t focus on money - focus on the problem you want to solve. Frankly, it allows you to keep people who aren’t that smart, who aren’t that creative.” At a lot of big companies, process becomes a substitute for thinking - you’re encouraged to behave like a little gear in a complex machine. “In fact, when I interview a potential employee and he or she says that ‘it’s all about the process,’ I see that as a bad sign. “I don’t believe in process,” Musk said in a 2012 Wired interview. One of the hallmarks of Musk’s companies is a willingness to discard the established way of doing things, cutting through layers of time-wasting process and procedures.

“Whatever skeptics have said can’t be done, Elon has gone out and made real,” Richard Branson wrote in a 2013 Time profile. Is Elon bothered by these croakers? We may never know, but we do know that he has never let them slow him down for a second. Even now, there’s a constant chorus of naysayers who insist that the whole Tesla empire is poised to fall apart at any moment. Every one of Musk’s enterprises has faced withering criticism from the “old guard” every step of the way. I think that’s the right attitude for CEO of a startup.”Ībove: Elon Musk at work on a tunnel project (Twitter: accepting critical feedback is important, being discouraged by negativity is quite another matter. “You’ve got to do all sorts of jobs and tasks that you might not wish to do, that are not intrinsically interesting to you,” he said. You often have to draw it out in a nuanced way to figure out what’s wrong.” He also emphasized the importance of “getting your hands dirty” - experiencing the minutiae of a company for yourself. “Take as much feedback from as many people as you can about whatever idea you have,” Musk told Google in 2013. Musk is very much a hands-on manager - he believes in soliciting feedback from subordinates and peers alike. Another good source of pearls of Muskian wisdom is the book Rocket Man - Elon Musk In His Own Words. Over the years, he has generated a huge body of eloquent/folksy advice for those who would follow in his footsteps (although your results may vary).Ī recent CNBC article summarized some of Musk’s most important lessons for 21st-century businesspeople. Fortunately, Musk has a gift for explaining how he does things, and he is generally quite happy to do so. Musk is much more than a successful businessman - he and his companies have set events in motion that will completely transform our society.Ībove: Tesla CEO Elon Musk in New York (Instagram: parlakjurnal)īe that as it may, his success is based in large part on his business skills, and he has much to teach the aspiring entrepreneur.

Forbes recently estimated that he has amassed a personal fortune of $15.3 billion, but the man himself would likely consider that one of his lesser triumphs. Regular readers of the EVANNEX blog will need no recap of Elon Musk’s super-heroic achievements. Here is how Elon Musk works smarter (and harder) than you

Elon musk work schedule