How to Stay Motivated? Elon Musk's Top 9 Rules for Success!

Pro Advice Yassmin Yasser 2 October 2020
Success is not the light at the end of the tunnel, it's the tunnel and a glimpse of that light. Read Elon Musk's Top 8 Rules for Success here!

‘’If it were easy, everyone would have done it.’’

Success is not the light at the end of the tunnel; it’s the tunnel and a small glimpse of that light every now and then. It requires a lot of persistence and determination to keep going despite all the obstacles that can wear a person down.

What are the top rules for success? How to stay motivated? The video below reveals Elon Musk’s secrets to success. 

Who Is Elon Musk? 

You must have heard his name unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past decade, 

Elon Musk greatest innovator ever, he’s been known as the real-life iron man. According to Forbes, he’s one of the world’s wealthiest people; his net worth is about 30 billion dollars.

  • Co-Founder and CEO of Tesla
  • CEO of SpaceX
  • Founder of the Boring company
  • Cofounder of NeuraLink and Paypal
  • Cofounder of AI

To have reached all this success at such a young age is inspiring, making his top rules for success a treasure. 

Buckle up to be motivated like never before and read through the best advice from Elon Musk.

Elon Musk’s Top Rules for Success

Rule#1: Work Like Hell: 

‘’If other people work 40 hours per week while you put in 80 hours of work, even if you do the same thing, you’ll achieve their year worth of achievements in four months.’’

Elon Musk’s motto is to work both harder and smarter. 

An entrepreneur needs to keep their nose to the grindstone and put in all their effort to build their dream.


Rule#2: Have A High Pain Threshold:

When you start a company, there’s lots of optimism, and things are great, but when reality kicks in, and you stumble across issues, the excitement and optimism will decline.

You will get so close to failure more than once throughout the years, but you should have thick skin.

One of the golden rules for success in life is: It’s never time to wrap things up and walk away from your dreams. Never. 


Rule#3: Critical Thinking: 

Nowadays, critical thinking is a skill in short supply. 

Elon Musk’s advice for younger people is to avoid rational thought. People assume things without a sufficient basis nor giving it much thought.

If you assume things without a convention, it’ll be challenging to determine how to improve, and improving your product or service is the only way to stay ahead of the game.


Rule#4: Add Value To Society

If the product or service you have in mind can add even a small value to the society, then it’s worth offering.

One of the mistakes new entrepreneurs make is not pursuing their amazing ideas because they think an idea that deserves pursuing needs to be world-changing. 

Any product or service that has benefit for even a group of people is worth working for.


Rule#5: Take Risks

‘’You should be less risk-averse when there’s not much at risk.’’

One of Elon Musk’s top rules for success is that he never lets fear stop him. When you visualize a better life for yourself, what you are risking seems tiny. 

Don’t stay safe, get out of the comfort zone, and take risks. Live with the bare minimum and focus on your dream.


Rule#6: Have A Great Product or Service: 

‘’Your product needs to be much better; it can’t be a little bit better.’’

Unless your product or service tackles a brand new market, your product needs to be distinct.

You must provide something unusual. People prefer to use what they already know; therefore, when you’re new to the market, it’ll not be easy for them to give up on the product they’ve been using to try something new unless it’s exceptional.

Give yourself time to analyze your competitors’ products and the whole market. See how you can improve your product to match your niche’s preferences better and work on applying the improvements before you launch. 


Rule#7: Attract Great People: 

One of the top rules for success is picking who you have on your team wisely.

A company led by great people is fated to succeed, hence when you’re building your company, pick your team wisely. 

Your people need to be hard-working focused people.


Rule#8: Constantly Seek Criticism: 

‘’A well-thought critique is valuable as gold.’’

You have to seek this from everyone you can, especially your friends and inner circle.

Because your friends usually know what’s wrong, but they don’t say it because they’re afraid to hurt you; hence, always show them that you’re open to criticism.

After listening to what the critics got to say, sit, and boil things down to the most fundamental truths, you can imagine and reason up from there. Criticism can help you decide on what you need to improve and how you’d do it. 

Analyzing all matters takes a lot of effort, but it's the best way to think and the most effective means.

Rule#9: Overcome Critics:

Success is a life-long journey; its fundamentals are determination and hard work.

Which of Elon Musk’s top rules for success motivated you most?