This is the subject Elon Musk says young people need to study to be successful in the future
What advice would billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk give to young people who want to be successful? Simple: study physics.
The SpaceX and Tesla co-founder was speaking at the World Government Summit in Dubai.
Musk and the summit Chairman, His Excellency Mohammad Al Gergawi, discussed the future of artificial intelligence, space travel, autonomous vehicles and the world’s growing need for energy, all of which require people with advanced scientific knowledge.
Musk said: “My advice is, if you want to make progress in things, the best analytical framework… is physics.”
“I’d recommend studying the thinking process around physics. Not just the equations – the equations are certainly very helpful – but the way of thinking in physics. It’s the best framework for understanding things that are counterintuitive.”
Thinkers needed
Musk’s comments reflect the concerns of others in industry and government who fear a technology skills shortage as older staff retire and there are not enough younger people to replace them.
According to the European Union’s vocational training agency Cedefop, member states are experiencing shortages in information and communications technologies, medicine, engineering and mathematics – all careers that require specialized STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) knowledge.
Additionally, more industries – from banking to architecture and plumbing – are finding they are increasingly moving into a high-tech environment. The biggest department in Domino’s, for example, is the IT department, which has led the company to redefine itself as an “e-commerce company that sells pizza”.
Competition and confusion
This blurring of traditional lines is leading to some confusion over what is, and isn’t, a STEM profession.
A US Bureau of Labor report in 2015 into STEM workers said: “Depending on the definition, the size of the STEM workforce can range from 5% to 20% of all US workers. Although fields such as computer programming and mechanical engineering are generally considered STEM fields, there is less consensus on areas such as medicine, architecture, science education, social sciences, and blue-collar manufacturing work.”
Source: Shutterstock/Zhu Difeng
Musk, speaking in Dubai about the rate of technological change over the past century and future developments, highlighted the need for more science and maths graduates to ensure humans’ full potential is realized.
“When you think the first controlled power flight was in 1903 with the Wright Brothers. And then, 66 years later we put the first people on the moon … if you asked people in 1900 what are the odds of landing on the moon they would’ve said that’s ridiculous. If you try to talk to them about the internet they wouldn’t know what the heck you were even talking about. But today, with a hundred-dollar device you can video-conference with anyone in the world.”
The pace of change
Musk added there would be considerable growth in areas such as programming, machine autonomy and even space travel, but there would also be challenges
to overcome.
“I think we’ll see autonomy and artificial intelligence advance tremendously … My guess is in probably 10 years, it will be very unusual for cars to be built that are not fully autonomous.”
“As it is, the Tesla cars that are made today have the sensor system necessary for full autonomy … so, it’s mostly just the question of developing [and uploading] the software … You just tell it where you want to go, and it takes you there with extreme levels of safety.”
Source: Shutterstock
Wishing on a star?
The SpaceX founder said he hoped plans to explore other planets would be well advanced in coming decades, though he admitted he could just be wishful thinking.
“I hope we are out there on Mars and maybe beyond Mars, Jupiter. I hope we’re traveling frequently throughout the solar system, perhaps preparing for missions to nearby star systems. I think all of that is possible in 50 years. And I think it’s going to be very exciting to do that.”
But he did highlight one potential problem that could pose a threat to the dreams of a high-tech future: the amount of electricity needed to power it.
“There’s the movement towards electric vehicles, sustainable transport, I think that’s going to be good for many reasons. But [it won’t be] something that happens immediately; that’s going to happen slower than the self-driving vehicles.”
While he said the move to all-electric transport would take 30 to 40 years, he warned: “The demand for electricity will probably triple. So, it’s going to be very important to think about how you make so much more electricity.”
A final thought
Finally, when asked what he would say to young people who wanted to be like him, Musk replied: “I think that probably they shouldn’t want to be. I think it sounds better than it is …”
“It’s not as much fun being me as you’d think … It could be worse, for sure, but … I’m not sure I want to be me!” source
Top 10 Rules of Success by Elon Musk
Business magnate. Investor. Engineer. He is also the co-founder of such great projects as Tesla Motors, SolarCity, OpenAI, Zip2 and Paypal. But how did a little boy from Pretoria, South Africa become the real Iron Man who is changing the world now? His story isn’t about unexpected successful events, but about struggling and strong life principles. If you want to be successful and set up your own business, you should follow these rules.
Attract great people
According to Elon Musk, a company is a group of people. But it shouldn’t be a depersonalized group of people. In order to see how talented and smart they are, get to know your employees better, share ideas and results with them. It’ll help them to realize that you respect and appreciate them.
“All a company is, is a group of people that are gathered together to create a product or service. So depending upon how talented and hardworking that group is, and the degree to which they’re 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.”
I think that success of any company depends on not only people but the working process. It must be optimized, and your employees shouldn’t waste their time on unnecessary actions. So, invest money in your people and try new things and new tools.
Have a great product
The market is full of different services and products, and, if you want to start a business, your product has to be much better than what your competitors have.
“Whatever you’re doing is a great product or service, it has to be really great. […] 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. […] You’re always going to buy the trusted brand unless there’s a big difference. […] It can’t just be slightly better, it’s gotta be a lot better.”
Work ‘super hard’
If you want to create a great product that will be really useful for people, work super hard. Procrastination hasn’t helped anyone to succeed and build a famous company.
Musk gave this piece of advice to the students finally leaving behind years of difficult schoolwork: “What does ‘super hard’ mean? […] Work hard like, every waking hour. That’s the thing I would say, particularly if you’re starting a company. If you do simple math, say 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.”
Do something important
When Elon invested in Tesla, he thought that this company wouldn’t be successful. But he believed that this idea was important for humanity, because it could change the world and help it become oil free. And, now, Tesla is the future.
“I didn’t really think Tesla would be successful, I thought we would most likely fail. But I thought that we could at least address the false perception that people had that an electric car had to be ugly and slow and boring like a golf cart. […] If something’s important enough you should try even if the probable outcome is failure.”
Focus on signal over noise
When you’re working on your product, think about its quality. And your company will be famous without advertising.
“A lot of companies get confused; they spend money on things that don’t actually make the product better. For example at Tesla, we’ve never spent any money on advertising. We put all the money into R&D and manufacturing and design to try to make the car as good as possible. I think that’s the way to go. For any given company, keep thinking about ‘Are these efforts that people are spending, are they resulting in a better product or service?’ And if they’re not, stop those efforts.”
Don’t give up
A path to success is full of ups and downs. Elon Musk faced failure and bankruptcy as other people did. He sent rockets to space which were worth $90 Mn in total twice. But both of these attempts were unsuccessful. However, it didn’t stop him, and he continued working on this project. And, now, his company is the largest private producer of rocket engines in the world.
“I don’t ever give up. I’d have to be dead or completely incapacitated.”
Don’t listen to the little man
Don’t listen to the little man
When you start something new, be prepared that everyone, even people close to you, will try to talk you out of your idea. If you listen to their advice, you’ll regret this for the rest of your life. So, maybe, your satisfaction is more important. Think about it.
“So many people tried to talk me out of starting my own company, it was crazy. One friend of mine collected a whole series of videos of rockets blowing up, and made me watch those. She just didn’t want me to lose all my money. […] We’re doing these things that seem unlikely to succeed, and we’ve been fortunate, at least thus far, they have succeeded.”
Take a risk
During the speech to the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business and Leventhal School of Accounting class of 2014, Musk shared some pieces of advice: “Now is the time to take risks. You don’t have kids. As you get older your obligations increase. And once you have a family, you start taking risks 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. I would encourage you to take risks now and do something bold; you won’t regret it.”
I think that these words are not only for young people who don’t have children, but for people of all ages. Of course, if you have a family, you’re responsible for them. But imagine that you didn’t try what you really wanted. Is this life worth living?
Look for problem solvers
Nowadays, many people set up their businesses and fail because of business competition. Don’t think they’re losers. Look at this another way- these people were brave because they took a risk and struggled, solved problems. And, now, they’re experienced, maybe, your company needs such kind of people.
“When I interview someone to work at a company, I ask them to tell me about the problems that they worked on and how they solved them. If someone was really the person that solved it, they’ll be able to answer multiple levels, they’ll be able to go down to the brass tacks. And if they weren’t, they’ll get stuck […] because anyone who struggled hard on the problem never forgets it.”
Really like what you do
Elon Musk recommends finding a job that you’ll really like because life is very short so don’t waste your time on what you hate:
“Whatever area you get into, even if you’re the best of the best, there’s always a chance of failure. So I think it’s really important that you really like whatever you’re doing. If you don’t like it, life is too short.”
If you hate your job, maybe, it’s time to find a new one. But when you start your career in a new sphere, you should check information about the profession twice because the Internet is full of different myths. For example, many people believe that technical writing is boring because it deals with technical aspects of life. But it’s not true, tech writing is an exciting job with creative tasks, active social live and the high job satisfaction level.
Moreover, Tesla has available vacancies for technical writers! If you want to upgrade your skills and build your career in Tesla, here is the blog that will help you.