It is rare that the success of a business is the result of chance. Great millionaires such as Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Steve Jobs have admitted that they became obsessed with their project and that this is what allowed them to succeed. In many cases, the path to extreme success is fraught with sacrifices and challenges that not everyone is ready to take on.
This was explained by Justine Musk, writer and first wife of Elon Musk, in a post on Quora a few years ago, which the mother of Musk's first five children did not delete. Having experienced firsthand how her partner became a billionaire is an exceptional testimony to the evolution of these visionaries, as she explained during a TEDx Talks conference.
Extreme Personality, Extreme Success
Justine Musk's post was a response to another post that asked how people like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson and her ex-husband, Elon Musk, could reach such heights of success. His response was quick: “Extreme success is the result of extreme personality and comes at the cost of many other things“.
The author has nuanced an important aspect that differentiated each of these millionaires: “extreme success is different from what I suppose would be considered mere 'success'so know that you don't have to be Richard or Elon to be rich and successful and maintain a good lifestyle“.
According to Justine, these people not only have unique talents, but accompany them with an obsessive mindset that pushes them to work tirelessly. “Be obsessed. Be obsessed. Be obsessed,” says the writer, who lived with Elon Musk before he became a billionaire and married after he sold his stake in PayPal and became a billionaire.
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In her writings, she claims that Elon Musk is obsessed with recognition and that this leads to other aspects of his personality: “These people tend to be nerds and misfits who have been forced to experience the world in unusually stimulating ways throughout their lives. They have developed strategies to survive, and as they age, they find ways to apply these strategies to other aspects of life and create a distinct and powerful advantage. They don't think like others. They see things from angles that lead to new ideas and perspectives“.
Bill Gates has admitted on occasion to having a tendency toward obsession. The tech mogul said that during Microsoft's early years, he focused his entire life on one task: taking Microsoft to the top.
Musk's ex-wife claimed that Asperger's syndrome, which Elon Musk admitted to suffering from in his Saturday Night Live monologue, marked his relationship with the world and defined his entrepreneurial journey, whose main obsession is to go on Mars. “It's square holes in round holes“said Justine Musk.
This obsession stems from the fact that she clearly defined her goals and structured her entire professional career to achieve them. Veteran investor Warren Buffett used a simple technique based on two lists with which he refined his priority goals and prevented any other task from distracting him from them.
Motivation: the engine of brilliant minds
According to the author in his publication, the profile of these entrepreneurs revolves around a blend of unique skills and a bold vision that allows them to endure work sessions unthinkable for anyone else.
Walter Isaacson recounted in his biography of Elon Musk that the billionaire even slept in Tesla's offices and sent emails to employees in the wee hours of the morning, working more than 100 hours a week.
>> Elon Musk has 11 children from three different mothers: he bought three mansions to live “in community” <<
Bill Gates was also obsessed with work, so much so that he didn't understand why his employees wanted to take vacations. I worked on weekends. I didn’t really believe in vacations,” the billionaire told the BBC.
It is this exclusive (and exhaustive) dedication that motivates him to persevere in his goal. “Pursue something because it fascinates you, because the pursuit itself grips you and compels you. If the work itself does not motivate you, you will burn out or fade into oblivion, or your extreme competitors will crush you and make you cry.”
The goal plays a vital role in this process. “Follow your obsessions until you find a problem that affects many people and that you are willing to solve, even if it means dying trying“, writes Justine, who points out that finding this goal can take years, but that it is what allows these people to stay focused despite the challenges.
Living with stress and risk
According to Justine Musk, stress becomes a traveling companion for these millionaires. “Learn to manage a level of stress that would destroy most people“, advises the ex-wife of the billionaire who recently threatened the founders of ChatGPT, before adding: “It helps to have superhuman energy and stamina. If you're not blessed with god-like genes, try to get in shape. There will be jet lag, mental fatigue, loneliness, uninteresting meetings, major failures, family drama, problems with your partner that you rarely see, people who bore and annoy you…“.
According to Justine, people who have succeeded at the level of Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates do not handle failure the same way as everyone else, and this has led them to take paths that no one else does. 've walked before, to create products and take steps that no one had ever considered before. Elon Musk admitted, during an interview at the SXSW 2013 event, that he had suffered many failures during his career.
“They are not afraid of failure (or at least they are, but they continue anyway). They experience heroic, spectacular, humiliating, and very public failures, but they find a way to rethink them until they are no longer a failure at all. When they fail like others don't fail, they learn things that others don't and never will learn. They show incredible determination and resilience“, also declared the writer in her publication.
According to Justine, this ability to redefine failure allows them to acquire knowledge that others do not have. Additionally, the emotional impact of failure is reduced when it is accepted as part of the process: “Pressure breaks eggs, but it also creates diamonds“. Therefore, accepting problems as a constant in any project is fundamental to not losing sight of the objective.
Article written in collaboration with our colleagues from Xataka.
