CREATING A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS

I think the first is, depending on how well you want to do and particularly if you're starting a company, you need to work super-hard. So what does super-hard mean? Well, when my brother and I were starting our first company, instead of getting an apartment we just rented a small office and we slept on the couch. And we showered at the YMCA, and we had just one computer. So the website was up during the day, and I was coding at night, seven days a week, all the time.

That’s particularly And I mean, if you do the simple math, say like, okay if somebody else is working 50 hours and you're working a hundred, you'll get twice as much done in the course of a year as the other company. I think two, is you got to make sure that whatever you're doing is a great product or service.

It has to be great. I go back to what I was saying earlier where if you're a new company, I mean unless it's like some new industry or new market, if it's an untapped market then you have more ability to...The standard is lower for your product or service. But 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. It can't be a little bit better, because then you put yourself in the shoes of the consumer and they say why would you buy it as a consumer?

You're always going to buy the trusted brand unless there's a big difference. So a lot of times entrepreneurs will come up with something which is only slightly better. And it can't just be slightly better. It's got to be a lot better.

The other thing I'd say is that if you're creating a company or if you're joining a company, the most important thing is to attract great people. So either join an amazing group that you respect, or if you're building a company you've got to gather great people. I mean, a company is a group of people that have gathered together to create a product or service. And so depending upon how talented and hardworking that group is, and the degree to which they are 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. Then, I'd say focus on signal over noise. A lot of companies get confused. They spend money on things that don't make the product better. So for example, at Tesla, we've never spent any money on advertising. We put all of the money into R&D and manufacturing and design, to try to make the car as good as possible.

And I think that's the way to go. So for any given company, just keep thinking about these efforts that people are expanding, are they resulting in a better product or service? And if they're not, stop those efforts.

And then I think the final thing I would encourage you to do is...Now is the time to take risks. You don't have, yeah, you don't have kids, but 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. So I would encourage you to take risks now. Do something bold. You won't regret it.