How to Be Like Elon Musk

Did you know Elon Musk read two entire sets of encyclopedias as a child?

Well, when I was 3 years old, my aunt once found me reading an encyclopedia. She was very impressed with me until she realized it was actually upside-down. I was actually just very intently turning the pages.

“Let me help you”, she said with a smile. She grabbed the encyclopedia and flipped it correctly in front of me. Next time she looked, I had corrected the book to its proper upside-down position and was happily flipping pages.

Although I was only 3, I will never outgrow the thinking. My aunt is smart. I want to be smart. My aunt grabs a book and turns pages. I will do the same and become smart.

Sound familiar?

Elon Musk is rich. I want to be rich. Elon Musk starts companies in promising, emerging fields. I will do the same and become rich.

When I am facing my aunt, I see she is staring intently at an upside-down book and flipping pages. I don’t really understand why, but it works for her so I happily emulate it as best I can.

But reading is not staring at a book and flipping pages. The real work happens within the reader’s mind. It is processing knowledge and connecting it to the body of knowledge and models of the world they have spent decades building. It is the thought patterns that are producing results. Even when I learn to read, reading the book will be a very different experience and produce very different results.

You can’t just turn the pages

When we look at Elon Musk, we see distorted actions and miss his internal thoughts and perspective. His biographical timeline of events is a bad map to success and sometimes we end up staring at an upside-down book. Trying to be him by following in his footsteps would be silly and not what a young Elon Musk would do. Your situation is very different from him.

To be like Elon Musk, you can’t do what he does. You have to think like he thinks. What motivates him? How does he fundamentally approach life and the world? How does he think and what does he value? Instead of emulating how Elon Musk deals with subordinates, learn how he thinks about leadership and relationships. Being like Elon Musk means building up the thought processes, knowledge bases, and good habits over years of dedication and effort. You can’t just turn the pages.