00:00:00
how is Elon so productive have you ever
00:00:03
deconstructed this so actually I've
00:00:05
known Elon for a long time I didn't work
00:00:07
with him um uh for a very long time just
00:00:09
we working on you know different
00:00:11
different different things um but I've
00:00:13
been working with him quite closely for
00:00:14
the last couple years um starting with
00:00:15
the X acquisition um and then um and
00:00:18
then we've also invested in xai and in
00:00:21
in SpaceX and so we We Now work on on
00:00:22
three companies together to different
00:00:24
degrees and now the the government the
00:00:25
government stuff um yeah I mean he there
00:00:28
there's basically he has an method that
00:00:30
he's developed um that I would say is
00:00:32
very unusual by modern standards um I'm
00:00:36
actually I'm not aware of another
00:00:37
current CEO who operates the way that he
00:00:39
does and I think probably the single
00:00:40
biggest kind of question in all of
00:00:42
business right now is why don't we CEOs
00:00:44
operate the way that he does and it's a
00:00:46
complicated question we could talk about
00:00:47
um but um if you go back in history you
00:00:50
find characters um more like him and so
00:00:52
um especially like the industrialists of
00:00:54
the late 1800s early 1900s um you know
00:00:56
people like Henry Ford or Andrew
00:00:58
Carnegie or Thomas who built IBM if you
00:01:01
go back and read the biographies of of
00:01:02
people like that Andrew melon you know
00:01:05
those guy Cornelius Vanderbuilt like
00:01:07
those guys ran very similar to the way
00:01:08
that that that Elon Elon runs things and
00:01:10
it's just this like the top Topline
00:01:13
thing is just this incredible devotion
00:01:16
uh from the leader of the company to
00:01:19
fully deeply understand what the company
00:01:21
does and to be you know completely
00:01:23
knowledgeable about every aspect of it
00:01:24
and to be in the trenches and talking
00:01:26
directly to the people who do the work
00:01:28
uh deeply understanding the issues and
00:01:30
you know being the key the lead Problem
00:01:32
Solver in the organization and basically
00:01:34
what Elon does is he shows up every week
00:01:36
at each of his companies um he
00:01:38
identifies the biggest problem that the
00:01:39
company's having that week and he fixes
00:01:41
it right and then and then he does that
00:01:43
every week for 52 weeks in a row and
00:01:45
then each of his companies has solved
00:01:47
the 52 biggest problems that year like
00:01:49
in that year and you know most other
00:01:51
large companies are still having the
00:01:52
planning meeting for the pre-planning
00:01:53
meeting for the board meeting for the
00:01:54
presentation for the this for the you
00:01:56
know with the compliance review and the
00:01:57
legal review and like so so he's just
00:02:00
like it's it's this it's this level of
00:02:02
both like incredible intellectual
00:02:03
capability coupled with Incredible force
00:02:05
of Personality moral Authority execution
00:02:08
capability focus on fundamentals um that
00:02:11
um is just like really amazing to watch
00:02:13
and then by the way the the side effect
00:02:15
of it um is he attracts you know many of
00:02:17
the best people in the world to work
00:02:18
with him um because if you work with
00:02:21
Elon like the expectations are through
00:02:23
the roof in terms of your level of
00:02:24
performance and he is going to know who
00:02:25
you are and he is going to know what
00:02:27
you've done and he's going to know what
00:02:28
you've done this week
00:02:30
um and he's going to know if you're
00:02:31
under performing and he may fire you in
00:02:32
the meeting um if uh you're not if
00:02:34
you're not if you're not carrying your
00:02:35
weight but if you're if you are as
00:02:37
committed to the company as he is and
00:02:38
working hard and capable many people who
00:02:41
have worked for for him say that they
00:02:42
had the best experience of their lives
00:02:44
when they were working for him and so
00:02:46
then there's this this attraction thing
00:02:47
and and and that's why I think his
00:02:48
companies compound the way they do is
00:02:50
because they just because of this they
00:02:51
just keep bring they're a black hole
00:02:53
that sucks in the best talent if you're
00:02:54
the best in the world you want to work
00:02:55
harder than anybody else come here
00:02:58
that's right and people look at this
00:02:59
from the outside and they're like how
00:03:00
can people Toler you know all the
00:03:01
criticisms how can they tolerate this
00:03:03
guy and and inside the company people
00:03:04
are like finally I get to work yeah
00:03:08
somebody gets it somebody uh somebody
00:03:10
there's a famous Li somebody used to
00:03:12
work in one of the other defense space
00:03:13
aerospace companies and went to work at
00:03:14
SpaceX and said he was asked what it was
00:03:16
like and he said it's like being dropped
00:03:17
into a shocking zone of
00:03:20
competence right it's just like it's
00:03:22
just like exactly your point like
00:03:24
everybody around me is like so
00:03:25
absolutely comp competent and and and Mo
00:03:28
and look most of most people most of us
00:03:30
never have that experience you know most
00:03:32
people are never in an organization
00:03:34
where like the the bar is held that high
00:03:36
and as a consequence as a consequence
00:03:38
the competence level is so high and
00:03:39
stays so high and even Rises over time
00:03:41
um and he and he's and and again too his
00:03:43
master credit he has been able to do
00:03:45
that repeatedly so detail oriented
00:03:47
focusing on everything from a toz in
00:03:50
terms of the business sort of intimately
00:03:52
familiar with it and prepared to get his
00:03:54
hands dirty from a I will get in there
00:03:57
and actually look at solving the problem
00:03:59
myself so is that you know that suggests
00:04:03
to me although this can't be the case
00:04:05
because you couldn't run this many
00:04:06
companies if you were doing it this way
00:04:08
um there may be some challenges in
00:04:10
learning when to delegate uh when to
00:04:12
hand off tasks because in order to get
00:04:14
that level of uh resolution to be able
00:04:17
to see things with that that much
00:04:19
finitude uh you also need to spend a lot
00:04:22
of time on it and then if you're solving
00:04:23
the problems how do you choose the
00:04:24
problems that are yours to solve and the
00:04:26
problems that aren't so on and so forth
00:04:28
so that must be that must must be a
00:04:30
challenge delineating between what is my
00:04:32
problem to solve and what is somebody
00:04:33
else's yeah so I say most leaders like
00:04:36
most CEOs we work with have exactly that
00:04:38
problem for exactly the reasons you
00:04:39
described I think the Elon method is a
00:04:41
little bit different and I don't know if
00:04:42
you'd agree with this but the way I I
00:04:44
think about it is he actually delegates
00:04:46
almost everything um like he's not
00:04:48
involved in most of the things that his
00:04:50
companies are doing he's involved in the
00:04:52
thing that is the biggest problem right
00:04:55
now until that thing is fixed and then
00:04:58
he doesn't have to be involved in
00:04:59
anymore and then he can go focus on the
00:05:00
next thing that's the biggest problem
00:05:02
for that company right now so like like
00:05:04
for example manufacturing there's this
00:05:05
concept of the bottleneck right and so
00:05:07
in any manufacturing chain there there's
00:05:08
always some bottleneck there's always
00:05:10
something that is keeping the
00:05:11
manufacturing line from running the way
00:05:13
that it's supposed to and sometimes the
00:05:14
bottleneck is up is at the beginning of
00:05:16
the process it's like we can't get
00:05:17
enough raw material sometimes the
00:05:19
bottleneck is at the end of the process
00:05:20
we don't have enough warehouses for the
00:05:21
finished product or the bottleneck might
00:05:23
be somewhere in the middle and if you
00:05:24
run a Manufacturing Company there's
00:05:26
always a bottleneck whatever the
00:05:27
bottleneck is is holding everything up
00:05:29
um and and and you you the job number
00:05:31
one is to remove that bottleneck and get
00:05:33
everything flowing and I I think he
00:05:35
basically has universalized that concept
00:05:37
and he basically looks at every company
00:05:38
like it's you know some sort of
00:05:39
conceptual assembly line sometimes a
00:05:41
literal assembly line you know making
00:05:43
cars and Rockets and and basically any
00:05:44
given week There's a bottleneck there's
00:05:47
guaranteed to there's guaranteed to be
00:05:48
the main bottleneck there's going to be
00:05:49
one thing that's going to be the thing
00:05:50
that's holding people back and and so
00:05:52
the answer to your question the
00:05:53
resolution of the Paradox is I'm going
00:05:55
to micromanage the solution of that I
00:05:58
don't need to manage everything else
00:06:00
because everything else by definition is
00:06:01
running better than that right and so I
00:06:03
can go focus on that the other part of
00:06:05
it is so compelling and this is where I
00:06:07
think a lot of especially non-technical
00:06:09
CEOs would really struggle to implement
00:06:10
the method is he really when he
00:06:12
identifies the bottleneck he goes and he
00:06:14
talks to the line Engineers who
00:06:15
understand the technical nature of the
00:06:17
bottleneck um and if it's people on a
00:06:19
manufacturing line he's talking to
00:06:20
people directly on the line or if that's
00:06:22
people in a software development group
00:06:23
he's talking to the people actually
00:06:24
writing the code right so so he's not
00:06:27
asking the VP of engineering to ask the
00:06:29
director of engineering to ask the
00:06:30
manager to ask the individual
00:06:31
contributor to write a report for you
00:06:33
know that's to be reviewed in three
00:06:34
weeks he doesn't do that he would like
00:06:37
throw them all out of the window there's
00:06:38
just no way he would do that what he
00:06:39
does is he goes and he goes and
00:06:41
personally finds the engineer who
00:06:43
actually has the knowledge about the
00:06:45
thing and then he sits in the room with
00:06:46
that engineer and fixes the problem with
00:06:48
them right and again this is why he
00:06:51
inspires such incredible loyalty from
00:06:52
the from the especially the technical
00:06:53
people who he works with which is
00:06:54
they're just like wow if I if I if I'm
00:06:57
up against a problem I don't know how to
00:06:58
solve freaking musk I can call on the
00:07:01
guy that owns the fre Elon Musk is going
00:07:03
to show up in his golf stream and he's
00:07:04
going to sit with me in the overnight in
00:07:06
front of the keyboard or in front of the
00:07:08
manufacturing line and he's going to
00:07:09
help me figure this out wow right and so
00:07:12
it's like how do you possibly like how
00:07:14
can yeah and this is the thing it's like
00:07:15
okay you're like a normal CEO running a
00:07:17
normal company like how can you possibly
00:07:18
compete with that um what are the other
00:07:20
reasons that uh CEOs of similar
00:07:23
companies or comparable companies don't
00:07:25
do that technical uh understanding I get
00:07:27
that that you need to be able to get
00:07:29
your hands 30ty from a a specificity
00:07:31
perspective but what else yeah so like
00:07:34
so that's a lot that that is a lot of it
00:07:36
and that's a that's a topic that makes
00:07:37
people really mad because you um
00:07:39
non-technical people really hate being
00:07:40
told that they are not qualified to do
00:07:42
something because they're not technical
00:07:43
but every now and then the technical
00:07:44
details actually do matter so there's
00:07:46
there's a whole domain there and you
00:07:47
know most managers you know it's like
00:07:49
most people in government are lawyers
00:07:50
you know most people in in in in
00:07:51
business and in senior levels are MBA
00:07:53
like and so there there's a there's a
00:07:55
there's a you know most large companies
00:07:57
are not run by Engineers right they're
00:07:58
run by business business people and so
00:08:00
there's a or increasingly lawyer
00:08:02
increasingly also lawyers um uh and so
00:08:06
um you know there is a real challenge
00:08:07
there and then I I just think more
00:08:08
generally uh more generally it's just
00:08:11
the way that management is taught um and
00:08:14
you know most classically in the form of
00:08:16
something like a Harvard Business School
00:08:17
or Stanford Business School it's
00:08:18
basically taught it's basically
00:08:20
management as it was sort of developed
00:08:21
and implemented I would say in like the
00:08:23
1950s 6070s it was sort of the so-call
00:08:26
scientific School of Management and so
00:08:27
it's basically management as a generic
00:08:29
skill that you can apply to any industry
00:08:32
um and you know you could manage a Soup
00:08:34
company or you could manage a you know I
00:08:36
don't know whatever whatever whatever
00:08:38
kind of company and they're kind of all
00:08:39
the same and it kind of doesn't matter
00:08:40
what they do and there's a common set of
00:08:41
management practices and and it has you
00:08:43
know is a lot to do it's you know
00:08:45
process um it's you know how do you
00:08:48
structure you know the how do you the
00:08:50
manage the balance sheet how do you set
00:08:51
the review schedule for the meetings how
00:08:52
do you do compliance how do you you know
00:08:55
hire you know how do you manage a uh you
00:08:56
know how do you hire and motivate
00:08:58
Executives um you know how do you
00:09:00
resolve interpersonal conflicts like all
00:09:02
these like General business skills and
00:09:03
by the way those General business skills
00:09:05
are you know very useful in L in lots of
00:09:07
contexts um it's just that that that
00:09:09
training doesn't give you any of the
00:09:12
inform that training gives you none of
00:09:13
what you need to go do what Elon does um
00:09:16
and then and then Elon push I would say
00:09:18
he pushes it as far as he can and not
00:09:19
doing all the stuff that you're
00:09:20
classically trained to do so that he can
00:09:21
spend all of his time doing the things
00:09:23
that only he can do which it turns out
00:09:25
has this like just like incredible you
00:09:26
know C catalytic multiplicative effect
00:09:28
where his companies are you know so just
00:09:31
incredibly amazing he Elon just said
00:09:33
this thing at the most recent Tesla
00:09:34
event um that blew my mind you know
00:09:36
because his companies are famous they
00:09:37
don't they don't actually have like
00:09:38
marketing departments like like Tesla
00:09:41
doesn't spend any money on sales and
00:09:42
marketing like they don't they don't
00:09:44
sell the cars like every other car
00:09:46
company in the world is like running all
00:09:47
these ad campaigns all the time TV
00:09:48
commercials and the you know newspaper
00:09:49
flyers and the quarterly you know sales
00:09:51
events and like all this crazy stuff and
00:09:52
promotions all these things like Tesla
00:09:53
doesn't do any of that it's just like
00:09:55
it's the it's you know it's the best car
00:09:56
and you just like show up and buy it or
00:09:58
not it's up to you you're more on if you
00:09:59
don't right like it's D my my dad went
00:10:01
to go and test drive Model S maybe a
00:10:04
couple of years ago and he's sort of an
00:10:06
old school car guy and he's used to the
00:10:08
the sort of banter back and forth the
00:10:10
for courts the discussion they please
00:10:13
sit down would you like a coffee would
00:10:14
you like you know what what is it and he
00:10:16
said that he walked in and it felt like
00:10:17
he gotone into an Apple store and there
00:10:19
was some as he called it teenager in a
00:10:22
hoodie uh that came out and my dad
00:10:24
started to do the whole like classic
00:10:27
Boomer parent negotiation thing and this
00:10:30
guy was like the price is the price and
00:10:32
I don't have any [ __ ] coffee for you
00:10:35
so he he left he left feeling uh like
00:10:39
this is the new world and now he has a a
00:10:43
Range Rover so uh yeah well that's the
00:10:45
thing it's like do you want the best car
00:10:46
in the world or not right like that's
00:10:48
elon's mentality right and and and it's
00:10:50
working very well and then he at this
00:10:51
event he just he took it to the next
00:10:52
level and this broke my brain I'm still
00:10:54
thinking about it he said if you think
00:10:55
about it he said the best product in the
00:10:56
world shouldn't even need a logo
00:11:00
like you shouldn't even have to have
00:11:01
your name on the
00:11:03
product people can just identify it from
00:11:06
how good it is it's just obvious it's
00:11:09
just obvious he did right it's just
00:11:11
obvious everybody knows because it's the
00:11:13
best product in the world everybody has
00:11:15
it everybody uses it and like of course
00:11:17
you don't need to put the name on it
00:11:18
everybody knows right and so for a
00:11:19
minute I was like all right is this like
00:11:20
a Zen you know thing that
00:11:22
I and and then I was like no he's
00:11:25
actually as usual with Elon it's like no
00:11:26
he's actually serious um the best
00:11:28
product the world would not need your
00:11:30
name on it yeah um and and so yeah
00:11:33
anyway so it's just this like completely
00:11:34
different um it's just this completely
00:11:36
different method and then and then on
00:11:37
top of that to have the guy who's on top
00:11:38
of his game you know uh to you know to
00:11:41
as you said to kind of be working on the
00:11:42
government Challenge and then to be you
00:11:43
know to have have the new pres you know
00:11:44
for whatever people think of the new
00:11:45
president pros and cons like to have him
00:11:47
fully you know fully signed up embracing
00:11:49
you know Elon and encouraging him to do
00:11:51
this is a really I mean this this has
00:11:53
not you have to go back like literally
00:11:55
the last time something like this
00:11:56
happened in in the United States
00:11:57
government was was literally like
00:12:00
1933 this is this the closest analogy to
00:12:03
what what at least has started to happen
00:12:04
is is is is literally what happened
00:12:06
under FDR which is just like a
00:12:07
fundamental reinvention of how
00:12:09
government works and like this massive
00:12:10
influx of talent um from actually from
00:12:12
the private sector that is able to just
00:12:13
like do things that are unimagined and
00:12:15
so it's you know it's it's a Once in an
00:12:17
80 years thing I'm you know I'm doing
00:12:18
everything I can to help and I hope it
00:12:19
goes you know pouring some kerosene onto
00:12:21
the fire as you are this episode is
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00:13:27
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