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Elon Musk is unstoppable! He's the most prolific and productive CEO of our times - he's even a bit cheeky. That's why we love him at the Moonshots Podcast. With his recent purchase of Twitter, he is now involved in over five revolutionary companies. So, we ask, 'how does Elon do it?'.
The Moonshots Podcast goes behind the scenes of the world's greatest superstars, thinkers and entrepreneurs to discover the secrets to their success. We deconstruct their success from mindset to daily habits so that we can apply it to our lives. Join us as we 'learn out loud' from Elon Musk, Brene Brown to emerging talents like David Goggins.
ms 177 elon 2
[00:00:00] Mike Parsons: Hello and welcome to the moonshots podcast. It's episode 177 and a mighty special one. At that I know co-host mate Parsons. As always I'm joined by the man from the future himself. Mr. Mark Pearson freely. Good morning. Good morning,
[00:00:15] Mark Pearson Freeland: Mike. Or maybe it's good afternoon or good evening. I'm not sure. Cause I'm coming in from the future.
[00:00:21] And that future is full of products made by and incorporated by the man of our focus today. Isn't it? It
[00:00:29] Mike Parsons: is the superstar, the superhero, the unstoppable man himself. Who are we studying to?
[00:00:36] Mark Pearson Freeland: Today Mike, and today listeners, we are digging into Elan Musk and essentially Mike, what you and I are really going to be digging into today because it's been a couple of years since we last covered Ilan on the show, it's been a busy couple of years to say the least, particularly, even though you and I might say, yeah, we've had a tough couple of years.
[00:00:59] It's been [00:01:00] busy for us for Elon Musk. However, it's been equal. Busy and today, Mike, I think we're just going to ask ourselves what habits does he have? When it comes to being success, how does he get things done?
[00:01:13] Mike Parsons: I think this is indeed their question. And I think one thing that you and I have to do for all of our listeners who are thinking, hang on a second, where did this Ilan show come from?
[00:01:24] Because we're in the midst of a creativity series and you, you might be able to hire you that Ilan is creative, but it wasn't part of the plan. Apart from running space, X, Tesla, boring company, your link open AI Elan decided to add another company into the mix. Like those five companies that I just mentioned were not enough.
[00:01:47] He's you know what? I get myself some tool wetter, didn't he?
[00:01:51] Mark Pearson Freeland: And now his boss says, can you believe
[00:01:54] Mike Parsons: it? And so we are interrupting normal [00:02:00] programming everywhere. So as you pick yourselves up from your chairs and, think to yourself, hang on, what is going on, Mike and mark departed from the game plan we did.
[00:02:10] So for good reason, we felt that what Ilan did this week deserves not just an Ilan episode. We are going to throw out two episodes this week because it is just so breathtaking the capacity of one human to do so much. And that's why we want to talk about Ilan. So ahead for us in this show today, we're all going to dig in to this question that you asked mark, how does Elan do it?
[00:02:37] How does he spend so. Many companies and, mark, just to build the tension here, these are not companies where they're like, they're just doing a thing and they're selling a widget. Building rocket ships and sending them out into space and building electronic vehicles and doing AI and doing all sorts of [00:03:00] neuroscience.
[00:03:01] These are all ambitious, bold, breathtaking efforts, and he's working across all of them. And so for us, we want to decrease. How does he do it? What are the practices? What are the habits of success of Ilan Musk? This is the ultimate study of shooting for the moon in multiple concurrent smack. And what do you think?
[00:03:28] Mark Pearson Freeland: Yeah, I, Elan has been a character and a moonshot for us for a long time. In fact, Mike, when I was digging through the show archives, we haven't done one. Not two shows, not even three shows on Nina Musk. This is technically the fourth show on Elan Musk over the last three years. And I genuinely believe that's because he is a man who just gets stuff done.
[00:03:54] Yes, listeners, if you're thinking right, I want to dig into mark and Mike and Chad shows on the inner Musk, [00:04:00] please pop along to moonshots.io. What I think you and I and the moonshots family also recommend Mike is a great book by Ashley Vaughn. Which is titled Elon Musk, how the billionaire CEO of space X and Tesla is shaping our future.
[00:04:14] A great read for anybody who wants to dig into a bit of biography around the around the world, or the universe,
[00:04:22] Mike Parsons: all Elon Musk reframe. So we really
[00:04:26] Mark Pearson Freeland: recommend going to check.
[00:04:27] Mike Parsons: Yeah. So I think this is the perfect moment for us to start this adventure. So get ready, strap in. We are going to decode.
[00:04:34] How does Eland must do it and importantly how we can too, but let's start by setting the scene and let's actually turn to one of our other favorites, Joe Rogan, and let's get his reaction. To Ilan buying Twitter. And this is where we find ourselves with Elon Musk about to buy Twitter. I saw that apparently today.
[00:04:55] Mark Pearson Freeland: Oh shit.
[00:04:57] Mike Parsons: Oh shit. The press release [00:05:00] has been announced. Elan Musk just bought Twitter. We got a movie star cut type of a superhero. It was like a movie, like if you had a movie and there was a guy who was like a hero in the movie who happened to be a billionaire, does wild. Makes his own rockets and drills under the city and lecture cars.
[00:05:18] Elon Musk agrees to buy Twitter a $44 billion. Agreement to take social media network, private marks, the close of dramatic courtship. Here's why that's going to be interesting. First of all, he believes that free speech is important and not just important vital for a democracy for a functioning. And I agree with that.
[00:05:44] And what's interesting about this is we're going to look, we've found out some things about Twitter and one of the things they do is shadow banned people. So they make it so that your content, whatever you put out has less impact it has less engagement. They [00:06:00] limit your ability to express yourself.
[00:06:02] They've they ban accounts and they ban accounts. If that account says something that they don't agree with. If the account says something that violates what they believe, also, this ability to shadow banned people has to be exposed, right? That happens on Tik TOK. I was juice member. That clip, you just saw where I call.
[00:06:23] I said, I should be sure it was about me and my body and how I felt it was taken down. And I was put on probation.
[00:06:30] Mark Pearson Freeland: I think Mike, what really speaks to me in that gray clip from another classic moonshot of Mr. Joe Rogan, is this reference to him being a real life movie star hero. I think that's an appropriate title, to be honest, because he's doing just these unbelievable things that not only benefit him, I'm not saying he's doing it necessarily, not for the bottom line, but he's really doing it for the world.
[00:06:57] He's focusing these things on [00:07:00] benefiting humanity for for a very colloquial title there.
[00:07:05] Mike Parsons: Yeah. You can certainly see there's a lot of mission-driven thinking that's why he pulls off these kinds of things. But if you look at each and every one of his endeavors, They're all pretty ambitious.
[00:07:20] Like he's decided to go 10 X rather than just 10% better. The interesting reflection here is what he's planning to do was an option available to Twitter for the last 15 years. They just decided not to do it. Maybe mark. They didn't even think to do it, but Ian thinks differently. He works differently to all of us and that's why we're studying him.
[00:07:41] And what I want to do is I want to. I put a second clip right up against that, that sets the context. And transitioners as from wow, what, like how many plates can Ilan spin right now? Let's have a look at the thinking that he's brought to Twitter [00:08:00] and then we can decode that. So let's have a listen to Ilan talking to Chris Anderson at a very recent.
[00:08:06] I think it's very important for
[00:08:08] Elon Musk: that'd be an inclusive arena for free speech where yeah. Twitter has become the de facto town square. It's just really important that people have the, both the reality and the perception that they're able to speak freely within the bounds of the low and.
[00:08:33] So one of the things that I believe Twitter should do is open-source the algorithm and make any changes to people's tweets, or if they're emphasized or deemphasized, that action should be made of parents that anyone can see that action has been taken. So there's no sort of behind the scenes manipulation, either algorithmically or manually.
[00:08:59] Mark Pearson Freeland: No [00:09:00] behind the scenes manipulation for me, Mike, again, this is talking to this idea of Elan creating products or releasing products or updating products in this case that are of interest and value intrinsic. To people around the world. Some of us might look at Twitter as just another social media platform, but like Elan Musk has said there it is a virtual town square where everybody has a voice and that is something to protect.
[00:09:29] And when you have, behind the scenes algorithms or manipulations going on, then you can see why people get so frustrated.
[00:09:38] Mike Parsons: Yeah. And for sure it has a very polarizing effect because who the hell are Twitter to decide what can be banned and what can't. And I think this is the huge mistake that all of those social networks make is that they failed to realize that there's no such thing is [00:10:00] remaining and not getting drawn in to Opinion making Facebook has massive data centers, full of people, reviewing suspect material.
[00:10:12] Like it is so hard when you try and draw the wine and on free speech what's appropriate. What's not. And what you can see here is ill and saying open it up when we are manipulating, at least make it open when we have an algorithm show, how it works. And what's fascinating is this is opposite of how mark Zuckerberg things.
[00:10:37] So it's really fascinating to see how will Facebook respond? Because I see this as a very exciting challenge and a very exciting time where, I'm not a huge fan of. I've never really worked it out for myself. So I'm really excited to see what he does, but what's crazy is this option to do what he is going to do with Twitter [00:11:00] has existed for the life of Twitter and they haven't done it.
[00:11:03] So Ilan comes to Twitter with this disruptive, critical thinking to address its biggest single problem. But my point here is mark, and he's doing the same sort of audacious thing. First basics for Tesla boring. Neurolink open AI. That is the Marvel and that is where we can become students and learn out loud together.
[00:11:27] Don't you think?
[00:11:27] Mark Pearson Freeland: Yeah, I totally agree. You could say that this show would be all about Twitter, the takeover, the value that he's going to bring, but I think you're right, Mike, there's a bigger question here, which is all around the habits that Elon Musk intrinsically puts into. All of the work that he does, like you said earlier, he doesn't just create a product and then it disappears.
[00:11:51] All of them are successful on the
[00:11:53] Mike Parsons: not only are they successful, at least in the. Audaciousness that they reset the [00:12:00] status quo they disrupt. But I just think he's shooting for the moon in every single step. And mark, I know there's a bunch of people who want to learn how to shoot for the moon, don't you?
[00:12:11] Yeah.
[00:12:12] Mark Pearson Freeland: Yeah. And I must admit Mike, our list of patrons is gradually getting longer than the list of companies that Elon Musk
[00:12:19] Mike Parsons: we're in a competition
[00:12:22] Mark Pearson Freeland: as tradition dictates. Patrion members subscribers. Roekel time. please welcome Bob and Niles. John Terry Nial marshaling. Ken Detmar. Tom mark. Marjon Connor, Rodrigo Yasmeen, Daniela Liza said Mr.
[00:12:39] Bonn juror Maria Paul at Berg Kalman and Nat David, Joe, crystal Ivo, Christian, hurricane Bri. And some of welcome Patrion members.
[00:12:51] Mike Parsons: Yeah. Thank you so much for your contribution. We are very grateful because that gives us the means to pay [00:13:00] all the bills that we get in our letterbox to pay for this production.
[00:13:06] And it is. And there's all sorts of software and subscriptions and hosting costs. And because we have so many members, so many listeners now the bills get bigger. Don't they mark?
[00:13:17] Mark Pearson Freeland: They do. Look, we're not quite at the extent of 44 billion to buy Twitter, but I recognize, I reckon all is getting up there and it's great.
[00:13:27] It's a great problem to have. More listeners and subscribers is great because it's getting the moonshots message out around the world, but you're right with growth comes additional costs. So every. Counts for us.
[00:13:40] Mike Parsons: Yeah. And listen, we've priced it. So to be a member, it's the cost of a coffee, one cup of coffee per month.
[00:13:49] And we really encourage you to get in there. To be very honest, we have over 50,000 listeners a month and we have 30 members.
[00:13:56] Mark Pearson Freeland: That's right, Mike. Now we've heard about Elon Musk. [00:14:00] We've heard from Joe Rogan all about Twitter and the recent acquisitions and purchases of that product. Let's now really get into the meat of today's episode.
[00:14:10] And that's all about that. Of Elon Musk's success. And for us, what is a real standout in his behavior, as well as his attitudes is his ability to just make things happen. So this first clip that we're going to listen to from Elon Musk took place at south by Southwest a couple of years ago. And it's talking about his inverted commas, boring approach.
[00:14:32] Although I don't think there's anything boring about Elon Musk, but his boring approach to creating tunnels and really the fundamental lesson here that we're going to hear from animals. All about being a doer. I remember
[00:14:44] Mike Parsons: when you first told
[00:14:44] Elon Musk: me that you were thinking about tunnels and the knife was telling you about that years ago,
[00:14:50] Mike Parsons: like a long time
[00:14:50] Elon Musk: ago, like I thought you were joking.
[00:14:53] It was, I was joking, but
[00:14:55] it's not because of some epiphany that I had one day [00:15:00] driving down the 4 0 5. That's how it gets translated. Somehow I was talking about tunnels for years. For probably five years or four years, at least. Whenever I'd give a talk and people would ask me about what opportunities you do see in the world.
[00:15:14] I'd say tunnels, can someone please build tunnels after four or five years of begging people to build tunnels and still no tunnels. I was like, okay, I want to build a tunnel.
[00:15:27] Maybe you haven't seen some a year. Yeah, so I was like, basically talking feels Arizona tunnels for several years and then said let's find out what it takes to build a tunnel. And So I started digging a tunnel. I wanted to start a tunnel from where I could see it from my office at space X.
[00:15:46] So I said let's just carve off a part of the parking lot across the road so I can see if it's, if anything's happening or not. And the renamed office, boring machine Godot usually kept waiting for it and it never came.
[00:15:59] I [00:16:00] finally did. And we're going to go. And now we're making
[00:16:04] Mike Parsons: good progress. Mike, for me, this is the foundational clip for this show to understand where Elan comes from. Yes, he has this amazing capacity to, have big visions to do critical thinking. Where he roots he's practicing. The foundational thing that he does is a bias towards action.
[00:16:31] He never falls victim to wish for thinking he is never falling victim to all. We've got a nice PowerPoint deck. He is Let's do a prototype let's test. What would it take? Let's just do a small one and see if we can do it. What can we learn? And more importantly, he shares this thing with a syringe Richard Branson, which is when he sees.
[00:16:53] The world he sees problems that might be worth solving. And what I loved about that clip is he's [00:17:00] literally saying know, I w you know, I was stuck in bad LA traffic for so long, and nobody else picked it. So I did, this is Ilan. He saw a problem
[00:17:13] Mark Pearson Freeland: questioned the status quo. Yeah. Do we all put up with this level of traffic and therefore, why hasn't anybody else figured this out?
[00:17:24] Or why has nobody tried to challenge the status quo and come up with a solution for this problem and this bias towards action, like you say, and as Elon Musk said, I'm going to find out what it takes, such a lesson in proactivity and productivity that I'm going to write it down as one of my mantras, find out what it takes.
[00:17:47] Cause it's, yeah, it's applicable for Elon Musk when he wants to dig beneath LA it's also applicable for. Us when we're considering a new show on the moonshot podcast for when we're at work, [00:18:00] when we're figuring out something physically like a run or a swim, if something feels difficult instead of turning away or instead of saying, oh no, it's going to be impossible to dig these times.
[00:18:11] Let's just find
[00:18:12] Mike Parsons: out what it takes. Totally agree. And I think if we break down this habit of a bias towards action, he doesn't pontificate for too long. He gets down and let's test something, let's build something. I think if we break this down a bit more, the reason why this is such an important habit to outline is that let's look at the inverse of this is that so many times.
[00:18:39] I you, we fall victim to thinking about something, but never actually doing it.
[00:18:49] Mark Pearson Freeland: It must be. In fact, when we did our show on Daniel pink and the power of regret, one of the key takeaways that he did, this enormous [00:19:00] survey and study and the majority of people when they get a little bit older, That they think back and they don't regret the stuff that they did do.
[00:19:08] It's the stuff that they didn't do. And I think that Elon Musk is a wonderful example of. Never stepping back from a problem and thinking, yeah, it's not for me. I'm not coming, not going to give it a go. And let's fast forward 10 years into the future. He might then look back if he hadn't have done anything.
[00:19:26] Oh, I really I'm now stuck back in LA traffic again. I wish I actually started thinking about how to dig these tunnels and create these boring products because fundamentally, even though he might not get their result within a day, For a week or maybe even one year, but the compound interest of let's say 10 years.
[00:19:46] Yeah. It has that huge impact.
[00:19:49] Mike Parsons: It does. And I think that one of the themes that we're fighting against as human beings is self doubt. And I [00:20:00] would propose to you mark that our self-doubt prevents us from being a doer and self doubt might be like I'm not sure. So therefore I won't do it. The outcome is uncertain, so I allow too much fear to kick in, but what's really fascinating is he.
[00:20:21] He demonstrates this behavior of don't allow self-doubt to prevent you from getting stuck into things. Cause it like how many times have you harbored a desire or a dream mark and thought about it for weeks and months? Maybe years. Absolutely. No. About it done nothing I've done that have you. Of
[00:20:48] Mark Pearson Freeland: course, I've done that with regards to, items, if physically in the house, let's say emotionally with regards to learning.[00:21:00]
[00:21:00] Or managerial skills, leadership skills. I've done it with reading books or not reading books physical exercise, running marathons and so on as well as challenging yourself at work. It's very easy to take that simple path. Isn't it, the path of least resistance, we're all geared towards finding out the thing that's easiest and therefore avoid those difficulties.
[00:21:23] And. Yeah, I think it's ingrained into us. Isn't it? So we're programmed to find that path and avoid the difficulties. The truth is when you take those difficulties and you give it a go, you're going to get maybe a better return. So to speak on that investor. Because you're learning and you're trying something
[00:21:44] Mike Parsons: new.
[00:21:44] Yeah. And what you hear is that successful people often break down big dreams into small steps so that the actual. Scientific risk they're taking, is it, is this very small? Oh, I'm just [00:22:00] going to build a tunnel. That's 500 meters long, that's it? Yeah. Just be, right next to the office. Like it's nothing major.
[00:22:06] We're just going to see if we can do it. Like the what's at risk there. Not very much. It's not like he's building a massive tunnel under the entirety of LA that comes like stage 3, 4, 5 or six. I think there's being a doer is really interesting because he compliments that with this great vision.
[00:22:24] Very powerful, critical thinking to break down problems, but what could we all do right now? I believe the anchor of it is. All the dreaming and vision that he has. He's a doer he wants to get in and have a go and focus on. Okay what's the problem with the fueling system on the rocket? Let's get into it.
[00:22:45] He's a doer. He doesn't believe in abstractness of PowerPoint. He may think wildly different to a lot of us, but equally. He does it, and he doesn't let self doubt, who [00:23:00] said, where what's his qualifications for building tunnels under LA. Yeah. But he did it. Yeah. And that's, I think what we can take from him.
[00:23:09] And I think it's like super powerful as a practice.
[00:23:13] Mark Pearson Freeland: Yeah. And I want to build on that because I really like where you're going with this mic. There was another clip that we had previously in one of our shows on Elon Musk. And it was about when he founded and was trying to figure out the challenges with space X.
[00:23:29] And again, he said a similar thing. I'm not a rocket scientist, I'm not an astronaut. I don't have a degree in emission in missiles. So what did I do? I picked up. I just started reading and slowly over time, he started to understand it more. And I think the build for us here is whether you want to create rockets, whether you want to tunnel under LA, when you want.
[00:23:55] Just read more or maybe learn a language going back to your point. [00:24:00] It just takes little steps. Yes. Start by five minutes a day or start by reading one page. It's the same with journaling. Start by one word. Yes. Yeah. And slowly build out from there. And I think Elon Musk is a great example of.
[00:24:16] Mike Parsons: Said, mark, start small, start daily and build habits for success.
[00:24:20] I'll tell you another small habit that you can do math for success. And that is as you're listening to the moonshots podcast, you open up your podcast app, Spotify, apple podcasts, whatever it is. And you give us a rating or review. Is that not being a doer or what?
[00:24:39] Mark Pearson Freeland: Look I'm learning up my Spotify.
[00:24:42] Profile right now, Mike, and if I hadn't already rated us, I would do it right now. It's that simple to go. It's really easy. And the truth is listeners. It makes such a wild difference not to us, but for getting the message out around the world into other listeners is, [00:25:00] and we've seen. Lessons and individuals get in touch with us from all over the globe.
[00:25:05] Haven't we, Mike. And it really matters when people do leave us. Our current listeners leave us ratings and reviews. We really appreciate them. And even if you think it's just one little thing, it will take me two seconds of my day. It does make a huge impact. It much, like we were saying about Elon Musk with being a doer, if you're a doer and you can give us that rating review, it just means that all of us benefit in the long run.
[00:25:32] Mike Parsons: Totally like just to help us get the word out. That's what a rating of a review does and that we've had so many of them. So it's a big thing to Maria. Rob knew in 87 pod, man, Dustin, Jody, I have beef bull. Y'all remember Mergen Jason and there's so many more we really appreciate your reviews, your ratings.
[00:25:54] That's how new listeners can discover us. That's how we can all learn out of. To [00:26:00] gather, and we're doing a lot of learning now and Ilan we've talked about this mark Yhonnie. He approaches problems in this really unique way and he loves to really get into it. And this next clip is another take on Ilan sort of problem solving and how we get to solutions.
[00:26:19] And one of the things he does is he uses. By writing actual total
[00:26:24] Elon Musk: mass of a steel reasonable steals. A spacecraft is less than that. Over the most advanced carbon fiber vehicle you could possibly imagine is having by accident. By the way, it may sound like some great insight, but it actually happened because we were moving too slowly on composite.
[00:26:43] And I was like, we cannot move this slowly or we'll go bankrupt. So it was just getting through this with steel. So you have.
[00:26:51] Mike Parsons: Has to be focused on problem solving. Otherwise you're going to
[00:26:54] Elon Musk: spend too much time trying to figure out why
[00:26:55] Mark Pearson Freeland: you don't start with a
[00:26:57] Elon Musk: yeah. Yeah. I'm like[00:27:00] taken to management by rhyming.
[00:27:02] If the schedule is schedule as long, your design is wrong. This is very true.
[00:27:08] Mike Parsons: It
[00:27:08] Mark Pearson Freeland: is so true, isn't it? And it's funny. It is relevant across all of the different. Industries as well. If you are repeating the same conversations again and again on zoom, if you are not making any progress with a marketing or product release or product testing, then you have to almost have a pause and think, okay how else could we do this?
[00:27:36] Let's rethink how we're doing things again. It's speaking to that status quo. Disrupt. Rather than allowing the process of a business to just keep on existing as it always has. Let's shake it up and again, he just seems to have this bias towards action. Think. Okay. If that metal is incorrect, let's try another one.
[00:27:59] Let's just give [00:28:00] it another
[00:28:00] Mike Parsons: go. Yeah. And what I took from that is he's just literally, got this thing it's taking too long. This is a bad signal. And he has the capacity to. Distanced himself and say, okay, this isn't on track. And you know how sometimes we get so stuck in the weeds. Like we just keep grinding away and repeating behaviors and expecting a different, exact, expecting a different outcome.
[00:28:25] So I love the fact that he has the capacity to call time out. Say, guys, take it to. Yeah that it doesn't feel right. There's gotta be something going on here. And through that, they actually made quite a breakthrough and to actually solve the problem. And this really gives me this thought that he thrives to get into the product, into the problems and the solutions.
[00:28:54] And, you see so many. Classic CEOs who [00:29:00] don't go deep enough in the business, whenever there's a controversy in the U S the CEO's go, oh, I didn't know what my subordinates were doing. When like they're called in front of Congress. And they're like, I wasn't aware that they were doing that.
[00:29:12] And you're like, I'm not sure about that, but yeah. Like, how can they not be aware of these things? Because the interesting thing is you look at Elan he really gets into the product and the problems that the business faces in order to move forward. And I think this is what distinguishes him again.
[00:29:34] Is, he loves to get into stuff, roll up the sleeves. And I find that a very strong characteristic that we're learning
[00:29:43] about
[00:29:43] Mark Pearson Freeland: Ilan don't you? Yeah. And I want to build on that insight, which you just shared Mike with a great clip. Sorry. A great comment from Walter Isaacson. He did this can include that in our show notes on this.com.
[00:29:59] And [00:30:00] I'll just read a couple of sentences. If you don't mind. Mike, the context is all of us around the world. We woke up and we realized that the deal between Elon Musk and Twitter for $44 billion was going through. But later that evening, what we didn't know was that mosque at 10:00 PM in the evening, he went, met with his engineers and he spent more than an hour.
[00:30:21] Working on it. Rocket engine valve leak solutions at the space X star base in Boca, Chica, and Texas. And we'll try and extend for a bit of context. My keys working on Musk's new blur biography and the quote from Isaacson is no one mentioned Twitter. He can multitask. And I think that's fantastic. Little again, less than here, isn't it.
[00:30:46] He's using this management approach where he's getting into the the weeds of issues, trying to figure out problem solving. He doesn't let the headlines. Like Twitter, even though he's the [00:31:00] one creating those headlines. Yeah. Get in the way of him just making
[00:31:03] Mike Parsons: progress. You know what Isaacson goes on to study.
[00:31:07] There is the complete focus that airline has his capacity. Like when he's in the room with the engineers working on Tesla, he's there. Holy they're 100% there and he's nowhere else. And what he really points out is Elan's capacity to be single-minded and focused in the moment. And I think. This is the huge clue.
[00:31:39] Cause there's no possible way you could bounce around all of these different companies. If you're doing five minutes there and then you'd check an email from the other one, and then you five minutes over there that would just drive you nuts. What he does is he's famous for time blocking. So he spends certain days at certain [00:32:00] offices, but when he's in those offices, when he's in those meetings, He is nowhere else.
[00:32:07] And I think this is like an extremist situation, which reveals how important hitting the do not disturb button really is in the, in this age. If you are not blocking out all distraction to bring your mind, your presence fully to bear on the problem at hand. Then the next notification is going to take you out of the moment.
[00:32:32] You're going to lose your momentum, Marquis and a half, those switching costs. So you spend five minutes answering the email and then come back to something totally different. And then you're like, you can almost feel your brain going, crunch, crunch bang. Your brain is ah, I just got to close one door and go into a new door.
[00:32:49] And then that's what we call switching costs. So he tries to minimize that by being. Fully present. He'd just bought Twitter. But then at 10:00 PM is in a [00:33:00] meeting with the Tesla engineers. And he's not thinking about Twitter. That's the key, isn't it? Yeah.
[00:33:05] Mark Pearson Freeland: That's the key for a man who is in charge of what he spends his time on.
[00:33:13] I think we're all guilty and myself included. Make of being. Allowing our diaries or our to-do lists and our emails, I E other people to dictate what we spend our time on. And I think you've hit the nail on the head there. Elon Musk is a man who's really determined and figured out the best way for himself to be.
[00:33:36] For himself to be productive. He knows that he needs to give it all of his attention. So therefore he creates environments where he can do that. And I think it's it's a. Disillusion for me to claim that I am my best working version of myself when I'm sitting in a meeting virtual or real life.
[00:33:57] And I'm thinking about something else, I'm [00:34:00] doing a disservice to the colleagues that I'm in the room with.
[00:34:04] Mike Parsons: So sure.
[00:34:05] Mark Pearson Freeland: So Elon Musk, yes. He knows in the back of his mind that he's just bought Twitter, everybody else in the room or the space X engineers, they know it as well, but. Mean, he can't give full attention to
[00:34:18] Mike Parsons: that marked I didn't even talk about it.
[00:34:21] It's not going to, it's not even mentioned. He just bought a F was it 40 plus billion dollar company with his own money? And no one mentioned it at all. Imagine if you'd just gone for a good run, you would have been talking about that for a minute.
[00:34:35] Mark Pearson Freeland: We talk about journaling and running all the time as the listeners know.
[00:34:40] But you're right. He just is able to close that door. The gears don't grind against one another. Shifts into that space because he has protected it. He's done a bit of a detox of other work and allows Cal Newport would say Mike he's, that's the best version of doing deep work. Isn't
[00:34:59] Mike Parsons: it? [00:35:00] It certainly is.
[00:35:01] And when you create the time and space, you can attack. The problem. And this theme of going after the problem, working on the product is exactly how he thinks about the people he wants to work with and how he builds. A great team. You need
[00:35:20] Mark Pearson Freeland: a team around you to deliver a lot of
[00:35:24] Mike Parsons: idea.
[00:35:24] Mark Pearson Freeland: How do you choose
[00:35:25] Mike Parsons: your team based on what?
[00:35:27] I suppose honestly, the,
[00:35:29] Elon Musk: it tends to be gut feel more than anything else. So when I interview somebody, my interview questions always the same, it's just. I said, tell me the story of your life and the decisions that you made along the way and why you made them. And then if and also tell me about some of the most difficult problems you worked on and how you solved them.
[00:35:55] And that, that question I think is very important to you because the [00:36:00] people that really solve the problem, they know exactly how they solved it. They know the little details and the people that pretended to solve the problem, they can maybe go one level and then they get stuck.
[00:36:14] Mark Pearson Freeland: I love that honesty that, yeah, because there's been again probably times for me, where I've blocked.
[00:36:22] The way I've flagged, maybe it's a conversation with a partner. I like a business partner or a colleague or a client or an interview, whatever it might be. And he has his calling out there. And again, this is a great lesson in honesty and authenticity, as well as it is for productivity and collaboration.
[00:36:44] If you really know the details, you can go that level deeper than anyone else. If you've been on that problem solving team like Elon Musk does with space X and all of his other companies, if he's there solving the problem, he can therefore go a bit deeper because he knows the [00:37:00] details. He knows what works and what doesn't work.
[00:37:02] And I think more often than not, perhaps there's a lot of us where we. Here the problem. We might provide a solution and then we'll let somebody else do it.
[00:37:15] Mike Parsons: You know what? I'm going to jump in here and say attacking the problem. This is a huge theme in the moonshot model. We see this everywhere, like Jaco Willink is yes, problem.
[00:37:28] Good. Let's get into it. This is where real men are made. This is where great progress is made on a product. And I think that we can fall victim to the risk of trying to solve the problem, or I didn't create it. So why should I fix it? Or I could really embarrass myself if I try and fix it, I could be in a really vulnerable spot here.
[00:37:49] What Elan is saying that he's true measure of people is, what did you contribute to solving the. And that's the test and [00:38:00] don't give me like first level, blah, blah, blah. Let's go deep. Tell me about it. And what's good. You can use that with others, but you can use it with yourself. So if you face a challenge, Ask yourself, have you attacked the problem?
[00:38:15] Have you really forensically gone into it? And what the real kicker here is, Matt? What we've also learned doing the show is when you attack the problem, so much of the stress, the anxiety, and the worry goes away because you've broken it down. And then you're starting to make some simple steps to get yourself out of the.
[00:38:32] Mark Pearson Freeland: There's been so many times for me where if I avoid the issue and I don't want to think about it, it stagnates, or maybe it always comes back. It
[00:38:42] Mike Parsons: always does. And it comes back with.
[00:38:45] Mark Pearson Freeland: It comes back worse because by then it's had time to percolate
[00:38:50] Mike Parsons: and grows horns. Doesn't exactly.
[00:38:54] Mark Pearson Freeland: Yeah, you're right.
[00:38:55] There's this big insight that we're finding from people like Yaka willing [00:39:00] even Joe Rogan as well. Unless you go out and address those potential challenges, problems arise. You go out, you really understand the, maybe even Mike, you go and listen to the moonshots master series, episode nine on second order thinking.
[00:39:16] Oh yeah. And you use some frameworks to really dig into the problem, as well as the impact of your decisions, the solutions. Then you're always going to be a little bit, let's say half. Yeah, you're not going to know those details.
[00:39:30] Mike Parsons: I'll tell you another one you can go to is Eric Reese go to our show on Erik race, author of lean startup is all about framing, a hypothesis for solving a problem.
[00:39:40] And so if you're really keen to build a product or company and you want to have a really strategic. Practice a habit that you can build, go and check out lean startup by Eric grease. We've got a great episode studying that. That is the best practice where you're always framing problems, solution.
[00:39:57] It's a sort of a scientific a [00:40:00] yes, no way to move forward in your business. It's fantastic. That's lean startup by Eric Reese, but it wouldn't be moonshots mark. It would not be moonshots if one of the biggest. Themes. Like I think growth mindset is a big theme equally big in our 177 shows is resilient.
[00:40:26] I can't tell you mark, how much I've benefited from seeing 177 times. Invariably someone's success has come down to embracing the discomfort. Willing to burn the bridges to pull it all in, to get the job done. And I don't think Ilan is any
[00:40:49] Mark Pearson Freeland: different. No, I think you're right. All the way from William H McRaven with make your bed with Ron holiday and our series on stoicism, [00:41:00] Angela Duckworth with grit.
[00:41:02] And as you say, Carol Dweck on mindset and growth mindset. I think this idea of resilience. Exists throughout a lot of these and who better to close out our show. With a great outro is Elon Musk himself. Again, speaking about Tesla and how close it was to death and how he had to be willing to make sacrifices.
[00:41:26] Elon Musk: Tesla really faces sphere of threat of death due to the model three production around. Essentially the company was bleeding money, like crazy. And just if we didn't solve these problems in a very short period of time we were dying and it was extremely difficult to solve them. How close to death did you come?
[00:41:45] Were you there within single digit weeks? 22 hours a day, seven days a week, sleeping in the back drain. Worked already from the, I worked in the. General assembly the body shop. If you're worried about yourself,
[00:41:59] Mike Parsons: [00:42:00] imploding,
[00:42:00] Elon Musk: like it's just too much. Absolutely. No one should put this many hours into work.
[00:42:07] This is not good. Should not work this hard. I have not, they should not do this as a sort of very painful on one sense. It's my brain and my heart. So it's. This is not recommended for anyone. I just thought, because if I didn't do it, then Tesla, good chance it would
[00:42:27] die.
[00:42:29] Mike Parsons: Not good, hard suffering.
[00:42:34] I think mark, it is so important to talk about Ilan success in light of the costs. That he has paid for this massive success is a massive investment, risk, hard work. I think he's like he's had, he's got a bunch of kids too. Like he's had a number of [00:43:00] different wives, like trying to keep up his personal must be just like extremely challenging, but you hear it in his voice there, ma he's not saying, oh yeah, that was pretty.
[00:43:13] Mark he's saying it was so hard. I was on the edge. Like he had put himself in mind, embody in spirit. He was spent, he was done. And we've talked about this famous story of him writing. I check where he cleared his entire personal wealth to back Tesla for the model three, when everything looked to die.
[00:43:45] He doubled down and he stuck to his guns. He was Goggins ask.
[00:43:53] Mark Pearson Freeland: He did go all in and as you can hear in that clip where he's saying it hurt
[00:43:58] Mike Parsons: my brain and his [00:44:00] voice. Like he's so fragile. Like he was that close to us to like falling apart. He
[00:44:05] Mark Pearson Freeland: was probably that close to just saying, you know what, it's not worth it.
[00:44:09] But I think the big lesson that we can take from that clip is behind the success. Like you say, Mike is this unbelievable amount of hard work and resilience. He is a, an entrepreneur who goes all in. He'll be on, as he says in the. On the assembly line he'll be doing and getting involved with the team and the angles of work that are not necessarily the things that he's either a trained in or be paid for.
[00:44:38] He's going out to try and figure out as part of a team, what the best solution is. He's willing to put that shoulder to the grindstone and get it going. And I think you can hear that passion as well as. Fatigue coming out of him in that clip. And it just goes to show how much blood, sweat, and [00:45:00] literal tears can go into a success.
[00:45:02] There's no overnight success. He didn't wake up, create Tesla. And now we can see one driving on most streets where we are instead. It's the product of so much hard work. Obviously from other people as well. They won't just be a B mask, but Musk is the man who's the face and the figurehead. And you can hear from him, he's not standing back on in the sidelines.
[00:45:26] He's in the arena.
[00:45:28] Mike Parsons: Yeah. And the stories of him sleeping in the office and stuff like that. Or if you go back into the early days, he's first company. I only had one computer. So during the day it with the computer would host the website, but then they would pull their website down so that he could write code in the evening.
[00:45:45] Mark Pearson Freeland: Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:45:49] Mike Parsons: The thing here is for all of his success, we have absolutely no rights. To be jealous. We have no [00:46:00] right to say he doesn't deserve it because when you hear that clip or when you listen to the stories of what he's put on the line, the investment and the hard work has been massive.
[00:46:14] So he deserves every single cent of his personal wealth, because if you're a vet, any doubt, you just only need to hear him. In his thriving success and abundance. Talk back to the time. When he was risking everything. And if you've got any emotional intelligence, you can listen to that clip and hear how much he suffered to achieve what he has achieved.
[00:46:47] Like I am of no doubt. He was on the verge. He was like looking over the edge. He was looking down. I truly believe he was there. You can [00:47:00] hear it. And how he taught it, heard his head, it heard his heart and the way he says it, my. He was right on the edge of the precipice. Wasn't he? And it
[00:47:10] Mark Pearson Freeland: reminds me of how he's had to deal with critics for space X as well.
[00:47:15] So obviously this challenge that he's discussing is the model three ramp for Tesla, but he similarly had challenges with converting critics. Past astronauts into the space X way of thinking as well, Mike. So he, again is not a man who's resting on his laurels. He's struggled. He's sorry, not struggling necessarily, but he's coming into challenges with all of these different businesses, but they keep.
[00:47:41] Important habit that we can take away from his, he doesn't shy away. Exactly. He will go out and he'll go and talk to the critics. He'll try and make his case. He just keeps
[00:47:52] Mike Parsons: going even going. So I think like the question becomes like, how do we [00:48:00] use that? And I think we can talk about. And be willing to make sacrifice.
[00:48:05] No, it's going to be hard, but what I would build on that with is to prime yourself, like Jaco willing problems. Good. Not bad, not terrible, not why. But good. Jeff Bezos says, if you're not upsetting people, then you're not working on something that's bold and ambitious. If you're prepared to be comfortable with things being uncomfortable that was what Joe Rogan said.
[00:48:39] And if you listen to what David Goggins says, you can't hurt. I will soldier through the only human who's ever qualified for the three special forces in the U S did. So for one of them, with fractures in both legs, that's right. He was prepared to be [00:49:00] comfortable being uncomfortable. And I think so many of us abandoned our dreams when the going gets rough.
[00:49:08] And what we learned from Ilan today, don't give up it. Won't. Kill you keep on going and be ready to say, Ooh, it's getting really tough right now. That's good. I must be doing the right thing. I'm growing, I'm learning. I'm stretching myself, yeah. Isn't it interesting
[00:49:27] Mark Pearson Freeland: how somebody like an Elon Musk with.
[00:49:32] Demonstrate those behaviors and those habits and those ways of thinking through the way that he handles himself. He's not somebody who's on these TEDx talks talking necessarily about resilience or he's not necessarily talking about. Resolve, but it's certainly demonstrated through his behavior.
[00:49:54] It's the behavior. And it's clear that he respects and understands and appreciates the idea of [00:50:00] resolve the idea of resilience, the idea of hard work. And in fact, in that last clip near death, I know. And he's still able to behave in a way where you and I, Mike and the moonshots family can learn these lessons from when you just take a moment to really dig into how he does it.
[00:50:21] Mike Parsons: You're absolutely right. And I'm going to take a bold guess. And say that your favorite clip from this show is be a doer.
[00:50:27] Mark Pearson Freeland: Oh, you've already done too many shows with me. Like I just, I find a little bit of a shoe horn here to try and get our Elon Musk. One-off special into the creativity series, but I believe.
[00:50:40] Aspect for me is so true when it comes to being creative as well. Like we're hearing from
[00:50:49] Mike Parsons: Elizabeth Gilbert with big magic.
[00:50:50] Mark Pearson Freeland: Yeah, totally. Even Walt Disney. Just again, go out and get it done. Just give it a go ignore the critics and the haters. Just give it a go. So I [00:51:00] love that tunnel story. That's going to be my favorite clip, so to speak.
[00:51:04] What about you, Mike? Which one spoke to you the most during this special show on Elon Musk and habits of success?
[00:51:10] Mike Parsons: I think where we ended up just getting comfortable, being uncomfortable make the sacrifice, being resilient. What's so cool is, yeah, we talked about his amazing focus thinking differently, disrupting Twitter, this guy, he is a rock and he deserves all the respect in the world.
[00:51:30] I couldn't agree more. Mike, thank you so much for joining me on this show and thank you to you. Our listeners and our members show 177 was all about the habits of success asking ourselves, how can we do it? Just like Elan. And Joe Rogan said, he's simply. Working across so many different companies and yet he adds another one.
[00:51:58] As he shared with Chris [00:52:00] Anderson, he's going to open up that little baby called Twitter. It is going to be an open algorithm. It's going to be far. Open in the town square. So how does he do these amazing things? How does he keep disrupting and how is he so prolific? We had four routes, be a doer break down those problems, have a great team who, by the way, love solving problems and more than anything, this is so moonshots be willing to make sacrifices, be resilient.
[00:52:33] That's it. If we do those things, we can learn out loud together. We can create. We can help each other to become the best version of ourselves. And that is what we are 101% all about here on the moonshots podcast. That's a wrap.