Starting a business is not easy. Sometimes even for people with lots of money. Your motivation, or reasons for getting into business may be the most critical factor. Here is a very short video that this transcript came from. the full video is below.
(Elon Musk speaking) my good friend of mine saying, starting a company is like eating glass and staring into the abyss.
So people say to me, like, what can you do to encourage entrepreneurs to start company? If you need encouragement, don’t start a company.
Full interview below (as long as it is still on YouTube)
Elon Musk is controversial, but also succdessful. And as it turns out, even in these modern times for a modern guy who is into crypto, electric cars, Twitter and outer space, he seems to subscribe to many of the old fashion notions. Notions such as discipline, focus, persistence, hard work, taking chances and trusting oneself.
The main point of this post is really about motivation. Motivaton, intention or why being a critical aspect of why people succeed or fail. Needing to pay the rent and buy food may be a good enough motivation to get a job and show up and do the job, but is it enough to create a business from scratch? Probably not. I have started a number of businesses. I have had to answer the question many times: “Who else have you done work for?” I have had to answer, “You’re the first!” It is a scary place to be.
Another scary place to be is when you don’t have money to pay your employees, and your own rent is due. What do you do? A popular refrain these days is to burn the boats. A reference to a legend from Sun Tzu
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Elon Musk seems to believe in discipline, effort and risk taking, rather than simply magical thinking.
